Deadlock

Deadlock (Gatekeeper – Book 2) by James Byrne

368 Pages

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books

Release Date: August 8, 2023

Fiction (Adult), General Fiction (Adult), Mystery, Thriller, Computing, Action, Adventure, Government Agencies

Desmond Aloysius Limerick, Dez to his friends, is back! He is a Gatekeeper. That means he can open any door, keep it open and/or close it when necessary. The book begins with an operation from the past that goes wrong. When the last man on the mission does not come out, Dez closes the door when the time runs out. Arabella Satti does not like that at all. He has made her look like a fool. Because of how that mission was handled, she has not received a leadership role.

Dez receives a telephone call from Raiziah, the vocalist in the band he sometimes plays guitar with. She asks for his help after her sister is attacked in Oregon. He jumps on a plane and is there. What he finds concerns him. A man conducting a financial audit on a firm is killed and Dez sees a connection to the attack on Laleh. What he doesn’t realize at the time is that this is only the tip of the iceberg.

The book has a fast pace, the characters are well developed, and it is written in the third person point of view. I was able to listen to the audiobook for the first book in the series, Gatekeeper, which helped me really get a feel for Dez. I can picture him as if he is standing in front of me. He is one of my absolute favorite fictional characters. I hope that I am ever in trouble that Dez comes and helps me. If you like action books, like Jason Bourne, except with a quirky Englishman, you will love this book.