Field of Valor

March 5, 2018
In Betley’s rousing third Logan West thriller (after 2017’s Oath of Honor), West, the former Marine Force Recon platoon commander who heads the supersecret Task Force Ares, continues his fight against the secret cabal known as the Organization. In an ironic twist, shipping magnate Constantine Krawcyk-Kallas, the Organization’s founder, asks West to help him root out and destroy a rogue element in his cabal. Someone within Kallas’s inner circle, against his orders, has been orchestrating attacks against the United States in an effort to destabilize relations between the U.S. and China. Betley resorts to the usual genre tropes—a global organization that wants to bring down the U.S. government, friends who turn out to be enemies, turncoats at the highest levels of government—but his battle scenes, both in flashback and in the present, are tense and often shocking. They more than compensate for the constant banter and inane internal dialogue during quieter moments. Military action fans will be satisfied. Agent: Will Roberts, Gernert Co.

May 1, 2018
A cabal within the U.S. government has the power and capability to disrupt global relations in Betley's latest thriller featuring special-ops master Logan West. Working well outside the covert spy world, West and his team are faced here with an enemy not only in their backyard, but also composed of former allies. How do you defeat someone who knows how you think and plan missions? Betley has expertise and background in the world of special ops, and it shows in the authentic narrative. The realistic banter only adds to the enjoyment even as the suspense ramps ever higher. Betley has quietly become an important new voice in the covert-thriller genre.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)