Publication Date: April 2, 2013
In Veil of Civility by Ian Graham, Declan McIver is living a quiet life when a meeting with an old friend sends him on the run. He calls upon long unused training but can he survive a dark conspiracy that will stop at nothing to take him down? Veil of Civility is the first book in Ian Graham’s Declan McIver series.
The author, Ian Graham, gave me this novel in exchange for my review.
What better genre to review for Independence Day than a political thriller? Graham’s very clever character, Decan McIver, is written in the spirit of Daniel Silva. Declan was a member of the IRA in his former life. He’s been living a peaceful and law-abiding life in the United States when his world falls apart. Declan is then taken from semi-plausible situation to semi-plausible situation in a rapid-fire manner that speaks to the legitimacy of the piece. Declan could be your neighbor or the guy who gets the can off of the top shelf for you at the grocery store and yet he has this rich and dangerous history lurking under the surface. He could kill you with not much more than a look.
We all remember a time when political thrillers involving terrorism were the flavor of the day. They all had a haunting sameness that acted as a bonus if you liked the character. I promise you, readers, Veil of Civility is like no other political thriller. Despite the impression that this story is built from recent events, the true result could not be more different. The terrorists are organized and deadly. Political thrillers are a scary animal for readers in that they tend to be plausible. Are there terrorists slipping through the border? It has happened and it can happen. Veil of Civility was written before the Boston marathon bombing and deals with an organized terrorist attack by Chechen Islamists in America. Author Ian Graham’s work reads as an author who knows of what he speaks and Graham tells me that this is a topic he has studied for years.
Once a reader gets past the exposition, there is no turning back. Veil of Civility is a non-stop action ride and grabs the reader, not letting go. The plot rolls, revealing each fascinating turn in its time. Declan McIver, as a political thriller character, is up there with Gabriel Allon and Mitch Rapp as a prime example of the genre. This is a series you will want to track. Veil of Civility will either make you proud or frightened to be American.
If this sounds like a book for you, read an excerpt and buy Veil of Civility by Ian Graham on
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