[Review] The Freedom Broker - KJ Howe

Summary: Kidnap negotiator Thea Paris has spent her entire life with survivor's guilt, following an unspeakable childhood tragedy. At eight years old, she watched, frozen in fear, as her twelve-year-old brother, Nikos, was abducted from their home in Kanzi, Africa. Although he was recovered nine months later, he was never the same after that; worse, Thea discovers that she was supposed to have been the target.

This defining experience drives Thea to become one of the top operatives in the field of kidnap-and-ransom consultancy. Nicknamed "Liberata" because she once secured the release of a captive from the Sicilian mob without her client paying a cent, she travels the globe trying to bring hostages home--mostly through negotiation, but occasionally through more forceful means. She is very good at her job.

Twenty years after her brother's abduction, Thea's worst nightmare is revisited when her father, oil magnate Christos Paris, is taken on his sixtieth birthday. He disappears from his yacht while it is moored at Santorini, the ship's whole crew slaughtered mercilessly.

Thea immediately calls in her team at Quantum Security International, premier K&R specialists. Following protocol, they break down Christos' life, looking for leads, but the list of enemies and business competitors is endless. Not surprisingly, Christos Paris has imprinted his designer shoe on innumerable backs during his journey to the top of the oil business. And he was abducted only a few days before the biggest deal of his career.

From there, the case only gets stranger. Unlike most abductions, there are no ransom demands, no political appeals, no prisoner release requests. Instead, the kidnapper sends foreboding quotes in Latin by text from burner phones. What does the kidnapper want?

And most importantly for Thea, will she be able to prevent a second kidnapping from destroying her family for good? (Pub Date: Feb 7, 2017)

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

2.5.

Thea has specialized in preventing and rescuing people from kidnappers to make up for the fact she couldn't even scream when her brother Nikos was taken right before her eyes. Nikos was never the same, her whole family dynamics changed, and so she had to toughen up. And all that training can't go to waste now it was her father who was taken by a mysterious abductor that acts outside everything Thea has seen in the manual.

This is action-filled and quick-paced. If you like solving mysteries, there are also some. Also, I enjoyed the part about how politics work in African countries, despite feeling the book may have generalized a little a continent so big—but I know nothing about this topic so I got to learn plenty.

My rating will be hard to explain because I loved the plot, the idea for each character, but wasn't a fan of the execution.

Thea is really a badass character, she proves as the story moves. It's true she counts with lots of help and she's naive about her own brother's personality, but she is still a good character. Or was supposed to be, because she never did it for me. I couldn't care less about her. Rif, who is probably going to be a romantic interest further in this series, was also the type of character I'd fall in love with. He does have a little more charisma but he lacked depth, making me agree with Nikos when he calls him Thea's guard dog. And Nikos, who was supposed to be the character with more depth, given everything that his abduction has caused, seemed to be a little... useless? Too much talk and no consequence? I don't know. He always had some plan, and yet, it never gave me any emotion. What was Gabrielle for, by the way? So yes, lots of characters with potential but it's just like the first episode of a TV series, you're yet to see them develop. Which works only on TV. When it comes to a book, that only made me frustrated.

The writing was fine, except for a tendency to substitute names for descriptions, such as "the kidnapper negotiator". That was the only flaw that I've noticed—since this was an ARC, small glitches have been fixed so I can't judge much more, anyway.

And the plot. It's theocratically good and I have no idea why it failed for me. I liked how things would go wrong when or where I least expected, but I never felt any thrill. Now, the conclusion was good. I mean, I didn't like the motivation but that goes back to how the characters developed. I liked how it ended.

This can be the book for those who like action scenes. There are many, and they seem to be good although I'm not a good judge for that. This author can improve a lot for the next book, I like how she dares, she takes no pity on characters. That's always a good feature in a thriller writer, making stories much less predictable. Still, I don't think I will read it before someone tells me she has improved, indeed. At the same time, I am curious about how she'll keep this going, considering how connected to Thea's personal story this first was.

Rating: 3 out of 5.