Reviews for Invisible : a novel

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

We meet Paul McGrath of U.S. Army Intelligence right where an action hero should be, in the middle of some international double-dealing. He's selling an explosive device he claims to have stolen it to a Middle Eastern colonel, and we're reassured when the thing blows up in the colonel's face. This would seem the proper introduction to a thrill-ride-of-a-novel, but author Grant has something else in mind. After McGrath is discharged, we meet him as a janitor inside the New York County Courthouse, pushing a broom and squirting disinfectant, working undercover to find documents that would put away his father's killer. It's an intriguing twist, and we wonder what Grant will make of it. McGrath comes up with useful stuff, like how contractors are screwing the taxpayers, but the scene changes again, and McGrath disappears while we slosh through the old dishwater about greedhead developers, money laundering, and human trafficking. From page 203 to 284, there's no McGrath at all. Instead we have chapters that look like slabs of words from some other novel; meanwhile, we long for McGrath and his mop. Grant, Lee Child's younger brother, has written several solid thrillers, and, while this one goes off the rails a bit, there's still enough good stuff here to keep his fans reading.--Don Crinklaw Copyright 2019 Booklist


Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

An Army vet keeps a low profile as he seeks to understand his father's death in the latest by Grant (False Witness, 2018, etc.).Paul McGrath is returning to civilian life after having served in Army Intelligence. He's been estranged for years from his pacifist father, who always wanted him to be his business partner. Now McGrath heads home to New York, wanting to see his father again, but when he gets there, he finds out that his father is dead, having died under suspicious circumstances while McGrath was still on active duty. .The father had died suddenly after a screaming match with his new business partner, Pardew, "a twenty-four carat asshole." Pardew's manslaughter trial fell through due to some critical papers that went missing, and then he disappeared. The NYPD still wants those papers, but they won't get help from judges or lawyers. A detective says "someone outside of the NYPD" needs to talk to "people who really know what's going on," such as janitors, clerks, and security guards. So McGrath takes the hint and gets work as a janitor at the courthouse, meaning he can nose around everywhere after hours. Given his intelligence background and military training, he is perfect for the task. In his new job he meets a man whose wife had been attacked with a wrench and crippled. Their landlord, George Carrick, wants to force everyone out of his rent-controlled building so he can create a park that won't block the view of some "sneaky Russian bastards." Unfortunately for Carrick, McGrath is "conditioned to kick the ass of anyone who preys on the less fortunate." Looking for the woman's attacker at a housing project, he meets four thugs who are armed with bats and a crowbar and beats them all up. Then McGrath forces them to sweep the building and courtyard before the police arrive. As with his anonymous donations to the janitors' day care center, he is invisible.Another solid and entertaining thriller. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.


Publishers Weekly
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After successfully carrying out a highly tricky mission in Istanbul that serves to sabotage Iran's nuclear ambitions, U.S. Army intelligence operative Paul McGrath, the hero of this superior thriller from Grant (the Cooper Devereaux series), receives a letter from his estranged father two years after it was written, thanks to the inefficient military mail system. McGrath's choice of career alienated his father, a pacifist, but the senior McGrath offers hope for the two of them to reconcile in the letter. When McGrath finally reaches the house in Westchester he grew up in, he's stunned to learn that his father has died, apparently from a heart attack, following a heated argument with his shady business partner, Alex Pardew. The circumstances immediately trigger guilt in McGrath over his refusal to be that partner. Things get worse when the NYPD suspect McGrath of being behind his father's death, leading McGrath to turn investigator. Grant capably combines a riveting plot and depth of character. His best outing to date, this standalone marks Grant as a rising genre star. Agent: Janet Reid, FinePrint Literary Management. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

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