HARD SUN by J B Turner

5* Excellent, but flipping brutal. 

Reading my only previous book by this aithor, in this series, it felt like one aimed at a male readership when I read the blurb, but goodness, was it easy to get into without any infodump or mansplaining. Therefore, when I saw this new one, I jumped at the chance to grab it. 

It's brutal. It starts brutally and Jon has a really tough time with the very little info there is to go on - thank goodness for the mantra drilled into him during his training that gives him the first, throwaway clue. The  it begins to get physical. That he came through what was basically torture, confirmed to the people torturing him, who weren't necessarily bad guys, that he'd training. It blew his cover that was pretty much already blown, beyond any doubt. I was surprised he wasn't extracted at that point. 

Jon is dogged, patient, a patriot. The baddie also felt that they were a patriot, and the author made them realistically, if sadly, believable, based on how the West has treated allies in countries it has gone to war with. I liked that there wasn't fanaticism, that there weren't utterances of death threats or fatwas, merely a person choosing a side, living for that side, ready to die for that side.

The SS agents in this, though, felt like caricatures. I've read several tales with SS agents and it seems as if they're anal in going about their duties. Not here. Not sure how so many could've ended up where they did, or how professional brains didn't engage, even if their personal ones had $$ signs. 

Anyway, it ends well, with Jon battered, bruised but ready for his next mission.

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for my reading pleasure. 

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