The Pursuit: A Max Austin Thriller, Book #2 (The Russian Assassin) Kindle Edition

A good sequel to the first book that i also liked. Enjoyed the writing style and fast pace. Really liked the protagonist and how original he felt.

This book was better than the first and keeps you turning pages. Enjoy it. I look forward to the next book.

I was rereading my Lee Child collection in the few days before Lee Child's Past Tense was due out. I spotted a book on Amazon called “Russian Assassin.” Those are two of my hot button keywords. And the book wasn't in that eyebrow-raising price range of $14-15 for a Kindle ebook. So, okay, I thought. I'll risk it. And I did. And after being tangled up in yards and yards of fishing line (the very clever and unexpected plot lines), I was hooked, tangled, line and sinker.Usually, my leaps into unknown authors disappoint. I often don't even finish them. But then again, sometimes (as with Mark Dawson/John Milton) I am wonderfully surprised. Mr Arbor and Max definitely surprised me. I was in the middle of Max's series when the Reacher book came out. I stayed with Max.Jack Arbor is a relatively new writer, and for all that, I was instantly absorbed in the characters and story. Yes, his newbie status as a writer was sometimes apparent in the first book, The Russian Assassin. But. Don't be put off. Somewhere between Assassin and Cat, Mr Arbor hits a high-stepping stride as a skilled and engaging writer.In Assassin, and only in Assassin, his language sometimes lacked fluidity, structural rhythm and depth, could have used some onomatopoeia in word choices, especially in high action scenes, might have employed set-ups for new scenes to include the mundane and irrelevant before all heck breaks lose. He occasionally used well-worn similes (“muscles hard as a rock”), but by the subsequent books, the plotting, language style (“sharp as a pointed stick in the chest”), canny use of choppy sentences in fast action scenes, had me fully engaged and visualizing. Very quickly I was stumbling over the ruts where I had thought the plot was going, only to find that I had missed the turn, and he had taken the plot off in an entirely unexpected direction.One of Mr Arbor's best qualities is his ability to portray major and minor characters with a deft hand. When he introduces a new face, he describes it with just a few spare lines, like the best sketch artists. One of my frustrations with many authors is that I quickly forget who these smaller characters are, and when they reappear later in the book, I am often having to use the Kindle search function to identify them. Not so with Mr Arbor's minor characters. He makes them simple and he makes them memorable and he makes them stick. Once introduced, not forgotten.I think this is an author on his way up, and I sincerely hope you do too.

The storyline of this book kept me reading to learn what would come next. The book is well written. So many books have a good plot but are not written well. Kudos to Jack Arbor.Looking forward to to the next in the series!

This second book in the series (after 'The Russian Assassin") continues to follow Mikhail Asimov (aka Max Austin) as he searches for the people who murdered his family. Max is a former agent of the KGB in Belarus. In book one he witnessed an attack on his parents' home, which killed them and his brother-in-law. He went independent and began a search for the killers, and ultimately switched sides (and names) and began working for the CIA. He met and killed members of an organization who for some reason want him and his family dead, but discovered that those people are only the beginning.In book two, Max continues his search. Along the way he meets up with bad guys from his past, turns a former enemy into an ally, travels the world, and kills more bad guys. At the end, he ends up whacking another person in the group responsible for his family's deaths. The book is generally well written and includes multiple subplots that are relevant to the story.Like the first book, it is more action than story, but is still entertaining. Unlike the first book, however, the action is more outlandish and harder to swallow. I praised the first book because the action scenes were believable and didn't have the over-the-top feel that the cookie-cutter action thrillers thrive on. This book seems to go a little more "main stream", with the heroes surviving impossible odds, getting stabbed and shot many times over yet continuing to live and fight, and generally getting away with things that only Superman or James Bond could do. Further, the plot, more of which is revealed in this book, is beginning to seem a little far-fetched. The 'Consortium', with it's shadowy members influencing governments at the highest levels, is more Ian Fleming or X-Files than, say, Tom Clancy. I ordered the next book, "The Attack" (there are apparently five books in the proposed series), and I hope it doesn't continue to degenerate.

Max Austin is still at it, only this time he’s more conditioned to return to his old ways. One of the best espionage tactics is to become a friend of your enemy. It became a fact when Russia teamed up with the West to obliterate the Nazi regime during WWII. The similarity here is Austin finds someone he associated with years before. The Russian consortium pursuit gets hotter. His reasons are to protect himself, his sister, and her son, and stay alive. Their chances of making it are slim currently. But the protagonist determines to finish the elimination of the Russian consortium one-by-one. The plot was believable because Austin used one tactic after another, increasing his achievements, whether socially, under attack and getting the hell beat out of him, or killing another underground Russian consortium member. Now it was an all-out war to find the rest of them. Finally, the ending made me want to read book 3 to find out more.

Good book. It is difficult to read a series as all the books following the first are harder to write and are judged by the first. I liked the book and found myself rooting for the main character. It was a little slower paced, I am happy one of the prime bad guys in book one got his just deserved end. I believe this book set us up for a real rock solid next book. Just as life has hectic times, and times more laid back, I find this not to be so bad in books that I can find believable. It was a tad bit short, another fifty pages would have been nice, but not filled with fluff, so I’ll settle with it. It was fast paced, easy to follow, and just plain well written!

I was as enthralled by this book as much as the previous one. Looking forward to the next one in the series.

Lacks the detail of Rain, Reacher, Victor. Very readable but lacks stick in the mind moments. Doesn't feel like the author knows the subject matter.

The mystery deepens as Max learns more about the old man in the wheelchair. There are some unexpected twists. An old power-hungry group called The Consortium emerges. We still don't know why they are so insistent that Max and his entire family must die. It may simply be his father breached their sacred secrecy. Max has also made a dangerous assumption that The Consortium has only twelve members, when all he knows for certain is they have twelve officers. Not the same thing. Where there are officers there tends to be a lower echelon of members, the drones as it were.The author did a fine job of creating a creepy atmosphere around the old man and the organization in general. The second book in the Max Austin series was thick with action, but could have used a little more depth in intrigue & mystery. Bringing in Yuri and the old guard bathhouse Russian was a nice touch though. You would think a control freak organization like this would have their information not only encrypted but coded. They would have words & phrases, numbers & symbols of which only they knew the meaning.

Great read. Central character does have values! Interesting story line flips around the world. Please keep writing Jack. Each new book is more intriguing than the last.

Following his father's assassin, Max an ex-KGB member, faces internal betrail. Disappointed, he turns into an assassin-for-hire. While he attempts to find his father's killer, he tries to protect his sister, nephew and survive once the assassin wish is to exterminate the whole family. Simultaneously, he finds himself mingling with CIA. A wonderfully surprising, fast-paced action book.