A Line in the Sand

A Novel

By: Kevin Powers

Narrated by: Christine Lakin

Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

In this “spellbinding and totally original thriller” (Philipp Meyer, author of The Son) a lonely veteran’s gruesome discovery throws him right into the face of danger as a twisted investigation unravels the secrets of his dark past.

One early morning on a Norfolk beach in Virginia, a dead body is discovered by a man taking his daily swim—Arman Bajalan, formerly an interpreter in Iraq. After narrowly surviving an assassination attempt that killed his wife and child, Arman has been given lonely sanctuary in the US as a maintenance worker at the Sea Breeze Motel. Now, convinced that the body is connected to his past, he knows he is still not safe.

Seasoned detective Catherine Wheel and her newly minted partner have little to go on beyond a bus ticket in the dead man’s pocket. It leads them to Sally Ewell, a local journalist as grief-stricken as Arman is by the Iraq War, who is investigating a corporation on the cusp of landing a multi-billion-dollar government defense contract.

As victims mount around Arman, taking the team down wrong turns and towards startling evidence, they find themselves in a race, committed to unraveling the truth and keeping Arman alive—even if it costs them absolutely everything.

©2022 Kevin Powers (P)2022 Little, Brown & Company

Critic reviews

"A riveting powerhouse of a book, A Line in the Sand pits two small town cops—and a mysterious Iraqi interpreter whose secrets have already gotten a lot of people killed—against corruption and violence at the highest levels of government. A spellbinding and totally original thriller; Kevin Powers has reinvented himself as novelist yet again.”—Philipp Meyer, author of The Son

“A riveting powerhouse of a book, A Line in the Sand pits two small town cops—and a mysterious Iraqi interpreter whose secrets have already gotten a lot of people killed—against corruption and violence at the highest levels of government. A spellbinding and totally original thriller; Kevin Powers has reinvented himself as novelist yet again.” (Philipp Meyer, author of The Son)

"Sure to rank among the year's best thrillers, A Line in the Sand is a tense, twisting, and thoughtful story of the intersection between grief and greed— and the human lives crushed in the middle. Kevin Powers writes with uncommon grace, delivering the rare novel that is both propulsive and contemplative, calling to mind writers as varied as Tim O'Brien and Michael Connelly.”—Michael Koryta, author of Never Far Away

Well written, well read

Characters, dialogue, plot, pace, images….all excellent!
Many thanks to the author for an excellent read.

Good. Not Great.

I enjoyed this story. But it does involve more than the usual amount of suspension of belief. Sometimes a story is so well-written that I just don't care. But it's hard to ignore once you get too many implausible scenes piling up on each other. The characters were interesting, and I've got to credit the author for creating unique characters that didn't fit into any mold. But sadly, that also meant that many of them didn't light me up, either. In fact, Armand and the female Master Trooper were the only truly inspiring characters for me. The others, while well-developed, just didn't appeal to me personally, either because of weakness, major personality flaws, or whatever.

There were also a ton of characters, which kept me on my toes trying to place everyone. But the author did a good job for the large cast he created. Part of my issue with this story may have been the fact that the author had no problem killing off his darlings. In a book like this, people are going to die, and it's not unusual to lose some characters you don't want to lose. But it was actually getting depressing toward the end. At least for me.

So what am I saying? You're on your own with this one. It's fast-paced and complex with some very well-written characters. But for some reason, it just didn't wow me. You may feel completely differently.

Suspenseful plot

I enjoyed the unfolding of the story but got impatient with the occasional overdone sentimentality in the descriptions and interactions between characters.

Amazing book beautifully written and narrated. Kevin Powers is an American treasure.

Wonderful suspenseful book lots of twists and turns fantastic landscape descriptions and amazing characters fill the pages.

I would like to give this a higher rating

The storyline was very good. But there are things I didn’t like about the book. I listened to the audio version and maybe that made it more difficult to follow. I felt like the book jumped all over the place. It was difficult for me to keep my attention on the book. Maybe if there would have been an additional narrator for male characters, it would have helped.
The characters weren’t well developed. There should have been more background on Arman, so the reader could relate better. I felt no attachment to any of them until the very end. As the book moved along, I knew that more and more people would die. Really that’s all this book was about.

Good Story but A Little Flat

The premise was good but it went flat for me when too much detail was given about minor characters or when a character rambled on about something that was supposed to be pretty deep but missed the mark. Armond was a nicely developed character. The crude police officers at the murder scenes were a turn off.

Good story

Enjoyed this book. Narrator did a nice job of reading the book. Great story line.

should have had a male narrator

story a little far fetched i found the narrator male characters poorly depicted and without proper accents

A sign of our times??

This was a fascinating story with believable characters. However, it is sad to think that this is even a semblance of how our military contractors operate. It just proves how corrupt and greedy our government has become. The language of the "operators" was terrible but most likely was accurate and true to their characters. It was fast paced and kept me guessing to the very end. I would have like a better ending without some of the main characters being killed off. It would have been nice to see Sally and Arman's friendship develop into something more permanent. The narrator was great and added much to the story. I finished this book in one day because I had to see how it all ended.

Great book

I really enjoyed the story and reading! So glad it popped up in my suggested reading