Death Stake

Trasker, Book 2

By: Andrew Mayne

Narrated by: James Anderson Foster

The trail of missing coders leads a spy into an international underworld of treachery, double agents, and digital espionage in a propulsive thriller by a Wall Street Journal bestselling author.

Retired intelligence operative Brad Trasker heads security at a remote aerospace facility when there’s a major breach. A photo of their top-secret AI-designed hydrogen engine has surfaced online. Trasker’s investigation into who did it soon leads to a start-up in Bangkok, where its three software developers have disappeared, along with nearly a million dollars in investment money.

Following their tracks, Trasker hits a dead end. The start-up’s HQ is a padlocked crime scene. No one—not the cagey locals, the mobbed-up gangs, or the Royal Thai Police—is keen on answering Trasker’s questions. But their message is clear: get out of Bangkok or die.

Hunted by assassins, Trasker is drawn into the same complex high-tech underworld of cryptocurrency, digital espionage, and betrayal that swallowed up the runaway coders. As the line between ally and enemy blurs, and the stakes become life and death, Trasker must navigate the dangerous intersection of modern intelligence and old-school spy games to survive.

©2024 by Andrew Mayne Harter. (P)2024 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“A slick and amiable thriller with a series of colorful backdrops.”—Kirkus Reviews

Who is Vic really & did he do what they say?

Another captivating story. The narration is excellent. The twists keep you engaged. Are these hackers following instructions or are they skimming for themselves. How many players want their knowledge or their dead bodies?

Good Thriller

The Trasker series is certainly different. It's also fun. It's got an uber-smart, strong female lead who's into start-up companies. Then there's Brad Trasker, who's just a unique individual with a highly unusual skill set and diverse interests. His humor; a combination of sarcasm and self-deprecation, adds to the character of this thriller.

This addition to the series has Trasker searching for 3 missing coders who may or may not have stolen money and/or secrets from the billionaire CEO's company. The more he finds out, however, the less he knows. Because this is more like kicking a hornet's nest than just doing some snooping. Since Trasker never knows when to call it quits, he's soon in serious trouble with a lot of very bad people.

This is a great read for fans of suspense/thrillers who like humor, action, and mayhem in their stories.

Trasker is extremely intelligent

Trasker is good at espionage and extremely intelligent. Perhaps too intelligent for me or perhaps I lose track listening to audio book; however I tend to stay a bit lost. Story is good enough that I will probably check out next book in the series.

Great Character

Very good overall. I felt the story was a bit convoluted and kind of dragged for a bit but it was worth the ride. Brad Trasker is an interesting character.

Best Trasker So Far

Andrew Mayne has been a favorite author ever since listening to The Naturalist in 2018, a book I've listened to more than once, it's that good. Trasker is a new series for Mayne and while I wasn't sold on Brad Trasker, retired intelligence agent with a ruthless reputation in The Night Owl, Death Stake was wonderful. One of the aspects I enjoyed was how realistic the descriptions of Bangkok streets, alleys, marketplaces, apartment complexes were, and so much more that provided rich background as Trasker investigated the execution of three young computer coders, pursued the one young man who escaped the assassination, and evaded pursuit, capture, and death by black op mercenaries and corrupt policemen. Mayne wrote with decent knowledge of cryptocurrency and it's use to transfer enormous amounts of money around the world without any government oversight or intervention. This is an exciting book, and Trasker has a lot of catching up to do in the new world of digital espionage. Fortunately, he's brilliant and his memory technique serves him well while he tries to save the life of a young coder who is wanted by almost every major government around the world.

not one of his best

I usually love his stories, no matter how farfetched. I had a hard time staying interested or following what was going on.

well written

besides being amazed, it is disturbing how powerful people ruin life's for the sport. should I be worried, that is the question.

Not what I expected

Enjoyed the first book so downloaded second. I’m giving overall 3 stars but 2 stars for story for me. I only got 1/3 of way through and have stopped. So much of the narrative discussed the main characters strategies for language and memorization that I got lost with where the plot was going or where the characters were fitting in.

Not Mr Mayne's best work.

Characters never really developed. I honestly could not find a character to root for or against. I am a Mayne fan, but this effort had too much obvious effort to just get us to the end.

Plot and characters. Keep this series going!

Simply magic. Deft and credible. Always looking forward to the next Mayne novel. Can’t wait!