Reviews

Hong Kong Black by Alex Ryan

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This is the second book in the Nick Foley series by Alex Ryan. While you could listen to this all on its own – characters and relationships are introduced in Beijing Red that would be better experienced first. (at the time of this review, both are available in Audible Plus catalog)

Nick finds himself teaming up with both the CIA and the Snow Leopards despite trying desperately to avoid both. Dash is brought into an investigation pointing to the horrific practice of harvesting organs from unwilling donors. I enjoyed the pacing including interspersing of medical, military, and political elements. The story kept me guessing and engaged.

There is definitely a budding romance between Dash and Nick, concurrent missions keep them apart for most of the story. This is best enjoyed when in the mood for a romantic suspense/thriller where the romance is closed door and a smaller part of the overall themes of the story.

While this is a complete and enjoyable story – the ending does leave some questions unanswered and definitely teases a continuation. Unfortunately, at this time, it doesn’t appear there are any plans to add to Nick Foley’s adventures. Maybe someday…

Narration:
MacLeod Andrews narration is again perfect for this story. I enjoyed his ability to shift seamlessly between accents and characters. He also does a fantastic job with the variety of emotions – specifically a few scenes that were absolutely heart wrenching.

lfro2013's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I decided to pick this book just because I'm visiting Hong Kong in a few weeks and I wanted to read a book that was set there to get me in the mood. It was pretty good, I did think it was really interesting that they have China and the Chinese intelligence community as an ally with the Americans in this as opposed to an enemy. I think that usually an American espionage books the Chinese are a big bad, but it was interesting to see it from a different side. That being said, there was something about it that didn't quite grip me. Maybe I didn't feel entirely that the characters were tremendously fleshed out? The part of it might have been that there were several characters he could consider Maine, whereas I'm used to books like this having just one big strong male protagonist. Overall, I did enjoy it, but another thing that annoyed me is that it keeps hearkening back to the events of the previous book, which of course I did not read. Usually I find that thrillers in a series are standalone to a certain extent, but this one is always referencing back to the previous one and then at the end setting up for a subsequent one. Which I just found slightly annoying. It was also a bit graphic with the violence to a certain extent which isn't exactly my favorite thing, but that wasn't a huge part of it. To a certain extent which isn't exactly my favorite thing, but that wasn't a huge part of it.

Content Warnings