The Gatekeeper by James Byrne

 

Um, since my thoughts about last night's book got me thinking about Ludlum, it's possible I'm going to see connections and debts to him as more present than they are for a while. That said, this book seems as though it owes a lot to Ludlum: There's the conspiracy to carve a new nation out of part of the US West Coast, there's international involvement, there's ground-level Bad People being manipulated by ivory-tower Bad People, there's a single smart and clever man pushing conspiracy plans in unexpected ways until the whole edifice collapses. Thing is, it works. It helps that Byrne has some knack for turning phrases, and that Dez is an interesting and intriguing protagonist. There are hints at the end of some expectation/s for a series of novels, but that's nothing I can object to, it's where the money is for novelists these days.