Betrayal: Book Review

I just finished reading Betrayal, which is the third book in the Ryan Drake thriller series. In the latest instalment, Ryan Drake finds himself in hot water when a person from the past shows up in his life and does the incomprehensible. This is a betrayal that demands explanation, and it lands Drake in Russia, where he is dragged into a complex conspiracy that threatens his life and American relations with Russia.

This book, in terms of plot, is by far the best book in the series up to this point. At the same time, the characters are only increasingly lacking as the story progresses and this weighs down my enjoyment, especially in retrospect.

Interestingly, I've become more critical of the other books in hindsight, and I'm not entirely sure whether that is a more accurate reflection of my views or not. Either way, the previous books, while tense and exciting, notably lacked in the power of the plot twists. Maybe the Caine plot twist was good, but I remember the rest of the twists were fairly obvious and uninteresting. This is completely reversed in this book, and by several fold.

Because this is a spoiler only review, I'll give my rating here. This novel is a 7/10.

Strides (Spoilers)

Because I mentioned that the plot twists were the best part of the story, I will start there. Particularly in the climax of the story, there were numerous reversals and twists of fate that both added to the story and the characters. On a meta-level I suspected that the main villain (I already forget his name) was faking his capture, but that kind of tension is on purpose, anyway. And the reveal was both compelling and executed in a way that was still surprising. Because Miranava was a part of this twist, it was both unexpected and we got to look back over the events of the novel in a new light.

The events only grew more exciting when Miranava performed a second betrayal and took power for herself. And for some reason, I really liked how all their motivations ran across one another. In retrospect, I don't think it's all that profound, but that was something that I caught onto.

The later reveals made me laugh, but in a good way. For Anya, it was fairly obvious that she was still alive, given how she was killed so offhandedly. The only reason I thought Jordan might have gone through with it was by reading non-spoiler reviews and seeing them talk about how dark the story was. But the reveal that Anya schemed her way towards her target (dear lord, I forget his name too, lol), was great.

But, of course, the schemer of schemers is Marcus Caine. I love how the events of these first three novels are all tied together by his plans. He knows that keeping Anya and Drake alive could be to his advantage as the woman takes out all of Caine's adversaries—and like it was stated before, the best agent is the one who is unaware that they are working for a person. Both Anya and Drake are his best agents, but all because of who they are and how they predictably act.

Another point to make that is related to plot twists is that the story did not have an obvious trajectory, and in a good way. I remember at multiple points throughout the book thinking that I was unsure where the story might be going. There was the open question of Anya's motivations, and the question of what the ultimate plans were for the villain, and this was something that set the book apart from the other two, where I thought I had a good idea of where the stories were going part way through.

Missteps (Spoilers)

I actually think that I have quite a few critiques to mention, so we'll see how I feel when I am done going through them all.

The first thing that comes to mind is Anya's character. At first, I was disappointed that she survived the story, but I know that Jordan has more planned for her, so I just hope the pay off is worth it. That is not the problem. The problem is that her character has largely lost her vulnerabilities. In the first book, she struggled with serious PTSD from the trauma that she faced. But now, she has no flaws. She never loses, never gets taken advantage of, and her character is no longer all that interesting. And I found it hard to care for all her tragic backstory, now that it is starting to get repetitive.

This criticism is ironic, given Jordan's critiques of these kinds of characters, but it's obvious that the trend to overpower your characters arises from a personal place.

Ryan Drake is another character that is less interesting. We don't get that much from his character anymore. I don't think he is the most compelling character in the story, which is a shame. And the biggest point, however, is that he genuinely is kind of dumb. Drake is constantly manipulated and outwitted by everyone around him. Every cool twist in this story serves to undermine Drake, as he is left to stare slack jawed as things develop around him. Why can't he have schemes of his own? Why is he just this semi-badass character with subpar intelligence? In a way, he is the opposite of Anya, with not enough cool factor or back story, yet it makes him just as uninteresting.

Both McKnight and Frost are sidelined in the story. This was also disappointing. I was hoping that McKnight would be developed more, but she really wasn't. This is partly because of a non-spoiler review that I read beforehand that said that Jordan did great things with her character here, but that turned out to be a reference to the fact that she was spy for Caine in a reveal that came at the end. I just don't care about her character, though. Presumably, that twist works because of how we used to see her.

Finally, the prose, something that I can't stop analyzing now, even while listening, is so redundant and workman-like. It feels so juvenile and lacking, but I guess you can only get so much.

Conclusion

Overall, I liked the story and thought that it was a fun ride. But there were also problems with how the story is developing the characters over time, so I will give it a 7 out of 10.