Vengeance is Mine

By: Douglas MacKinnon
Publisher: Threshold Editions: an imprint of Simon & Schuster
Publishing Date: May 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4516-4097-7
Reviewed by: Mary Lignor
Review Date: May 11, 2012

This book was a nice surprise. The book stars a fascinating main character, Ian Wallace, a former CIA agent who has some old-fashioned values that are not seen very often in today's suspense/thriller books. He actually likes and respects women, believes in honesty, and has a wonderful sense of humor. I know, this sounds pretty dull but that’s not so, as you will see in the first few pages.

Ian had a tough life growing up but found some good friends along the way. He ended up being recruited by the CIA and became a special ops agent in Moscow. He met and fell in love with a lovely skater in the Soviet Union who was killed by a brutal KGB Colonel in front of Ian. Ian was sent back to the United States and opened his own Private Investigation service but, even after twenty years, he is unable to stop the nightmares of that horrible night in a Soviet prison.

A friend of Ian’s comes to Boston, where Ian has his business, and asks that Ian take on the job of body-guarding an MIT professor who is a defector from the Soviet Union and is working for the government on some secret military defense systems. It seems that his old friends from Moscow are on the hunt for this professor and they want him back with all of his secrets. Initially Ian is not interested but when his CIA buddy tells him that the bad guys coming for the professor are being led by the man who killed his Ian's girl in Russia, and is now with the Russian Mafia and, Ian wants in.

The story heats up with Ian working with a female CIA agent and dealing with many, many Russians who are out after Ian’s hide. There are a lot of fascinating characters in this book and some really obnoxious ones. The professor who they are guarding is really a greedy guy who doesn’t think he needs protecting. This professor makes it difficult for the two CIA people to keep up with him and the Russians are all over the place, moving the pace faster and faster.

Quill Says: This was a great read and extremely suspenseful. It’s a job sometimes keeping the players straight without a score card but, the hero is someone you want to know. He’s a really nice guy and, believe it, this book will keep readers entertained until the last page. A definite keeper!!!