Open Secret by Fiona Quinn

Narrated by Teddy Hamilton

I don’t know how I’ve managed NOT to come across Fiona Quinn before, but I’m glad I spotted Open Secret (and I freely admit it was Teddy Hamilton’s name that actually caught my eye!) and decided to pick it up for review. Romantic suspense is one of my favourite sub-genres, but I’ve struggled lately to find books that achieve the right balance between romance and plot (moreso in m/f than m/m) so I was delighted when I started Open Secret (book one in the FBI Joint Task Force series) and found myself immediately drawn into the story, which is well-written, tense and compelling, with a premise so scarily plausible that it could have been ripped from the headlines.

Avery Goodchild is an editor of romance novels at a medium-sized publishing house, and is completely thrown when her boss tells her that her latest project is to be the latest novel by Taylor Knapp, the creator of a hugely successful video game and accompanying tie-in book called The Unrest. The game and book generated a lot of controversy and led to a discernible increase in hate crime, word is the next one – The Uprising – will be every bit as provocative – and Avery isn’t at all comfortable with the idea of being involved with the project in any way, shape or form. As she rightly points out, she has absolutely no experience in that genre, no point of reference, no skillset that qualifies her in any way to edit Knapp’s next book, but the author has specifically requested a female editor – and as the only female editor at Windsor Shreveport Publishing, Avery is told in no uncertain terms that this is a job she can NOT refuse.

When we meet Special Agent Rowan Kennedy, a foreign attaché for the FBI, he’s on a mission in Brussels, targeting someone he believes is part of a massive technological and psychological operation which uses social media and video games to disseminate propaganda and seed unrest throughout the US. A former Army Ranger with a PhD in Media, Culture and International Affairs, Rowan is an expert in propaganda and has been closely monitoring cyber activity out of certain Eastern European countries – Bulgaria specifically, but with ties to Russia – such as Bot Farms run by social scientists and skilled propagandists, and the fairly recent phenomena of the distribution of misinformation through online gaming.

I’m not going to say much about the plot because I think the listener will be best served by coming to it without knowing much about it, as I did. It’s complex, really well thought-out and rather unsettling, especially when we consider just how embedded technology is into our lives right now, and the idea of a video game being designed in such a way as to be able to be different things to different people by harvesting their data is so credible as to be quite terrifying!

“First… they help solidify and entrench gamers in their personal ideology and belief systems. Second, they train the player to be angry and afraid. Third, it teaches the player that they will be rewarded for violent action. And fourth, it helps those of like minds communicate completely anonymously.”

The technological background – Bot Farms, Influencers, the ease with which data can be… ‘acquired’ – it’s all fascinating and I was totally enthralled by the story and waiting with bated breath to see how it would all unfold.

The central romance is nicely done, too. Rowan and Avery have known each other for a few years via Twitter (Rowan writes as a kind of therapeutic exercise and Avery has provided support and advice as part of an online writing group) and they chat regularly, but to start with, they don’t realise that their worlds are about to collide in a very dangerous way. The author cleverly pulls their different plotlines to a convergence, although they don’t actually meet in person until almost the halfway point of the book. They do interact online before that though, so there’s a degree of familiarity between them that helps to forge a stronger connection once they decide they want to give a relationship a try IRL. They have a strong rapport and there’s a real sense of mutual respect and understanding between them; I liked how they worked together as part of the investigation, and liked them as a couple, but I was surprised when the bedroom door closed half way through the sex scenes (there are only one or two). There’s foreplay, and the author obviously isn’t shy about describing what goes on before penetration, but then, slam! – and although it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the book overall, it just felt really odd.

There’s a heart-breaking subplot featuring Avery’s mother, who is mentally ill and whose care falls entirely to Avery (her sister and self-righteous, pompous prick of a preacher husband don’t want anything to do with her); Avery’s bestie Lola is a hoot, and there are cameos from characters I’m assuming have appeared in some of the author’s other books (this series is part of her long-running World of Iniquus series) but this works perfectly well as a standalone.

So why, you’re asking yourself, have I not given the story a top grade? Well, up to around the eighty percent mark I was completely gripped, but then everything just seemed to go off the boil. This is a very “talky” thriller as opposed to an action-packed one, and I had no problem with that – but the ending is a bit anticlimactic, and there are a few places in the second half where the pacing flags somewhat. Fortunately, with Teddy Hamilton narrating, there was never a danger of my losing interest (and honestly, those parts were fairly short) but that and the slightly unresolved feel to the ending caused me to knock half a point off the grade for the story.

Speaking of Teddy Hamilton… I was delighted to see that Open Secret wasn’t a dual narration (which has become the norm for books narrated from both the hero and heroine’s points of view)because dual narrations can be really hit and miss for me. Anyway, Mr. Hamilton is more than capable of carrying a book on his own – and on the strength of this, should narrate more romantic suspense! (As should Jacob Morgan and Jason Clarke, who have voices that are made for the genre!) Mr. Hamilton is always a pleasure to listen to; his performance is expressive and well-paced, he’s good with all the jargon and his deep, slightly gravelly voice is perfect for a guy who’s a bit rough around the edges as Rowan is – an academic at heart who knows fifteen ways to kill a man with his bare hands! His female voices are good and generally well differentiated (although there were a couple of times I had to rely on dialogue tags), and he expertly conveys the connection and chemistry between Rowan and Avery, injecting just the right degree of intensity into the love scenes and bringing a real sense of urgency into the action scenes.

Open Secret’s storyline does hit very close to home, but I was pretty much glued to it from start to finish. It’s chilling, compelling and filled with twists and turns; I’d encourage any fan of romantic suspense to give it a try, and the added bonus of a terrific performance from Teddy Hamilton makes it one to experience in audio.

Caz

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Buy Open Secret by Fiona Quinn on Amazon