Night Owl

A Trasker Thriller (Trasker, Book 1)

By: Andrew Mayne

Narrated by: James Anderson Foster

Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

A shocking act of sabotage draws a retired spy into a deadly conspiracy in an explosive thriller by an Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestselling author.

After three decades in counterintelligence, Brad Trasker is retired, disillusioned, and dealing with a tragic loss. Spy games are behind him until he attends the launch of a next-generation aircraft. When the project of innovative aerospace CEO Kylie Connor explodes on the tarmac—nearly killing her in the process—Trasker is pulled back into the line of fire.

The mystery of the sabotage quickly deepens. All Kylie’s data has been wiped from the server. One of her engineers has disappeared. A seed investor has died in a suspicious car accident. And a cold-blooded murder raises the stakes even higher.

To discover who’s pulling the strings behind a dangerous conspiracy, Trasker needs to find a motive. Corporate espionage, revenge, or something he can’t yet see? Targeted by assassins, he finds himself overmatched when he realizes he can’t trust anyone—including Kylie. Too long out of a game he no longer understands, Trasker must adapt or die.

©2023 Andrew Mayne (P)2023 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“[T]he pace never flags. A brisk, competent thriller…”—Kirkus Reviews

“Andrew Mayne knows how to write intelligent, well-researched thrillers, and Night Owl is no exception.”—Bookreporter

New and unique protagonist

Interesting concept. Enjoyed the read but had to relisten to get all the connecting threads.

Great story and excellent narration

I am a great fan of Andrew Mayne no matter who the protagonist is. I really hope he does more of this character. Please keep up the superior writing!

Could not stop reading!

Another great Andrew Mayne story. Felt there may be another book coming with this character and hope I am right!

Meh

Sometimes this seemed like it was a movie: Daniel Craig would be Brad, and Helen Mirrin would be his mom. As much as I like those two actors, I didn't much care for this book. It relied on ridiculous devices (The Time Traveler's Notebook), and obviously referred to events that I presume occurred in previous books in the series. Narration was better than it deserved, but the narrator seems better suited for dry documentaries.

Great!

Andrew Mayne gets better with every book! I hope more Trasker books come out soon!

Interesting first new book

This was one of those books where I picked a book at random and hit play, without knowing any of the summary (it's fun to do that every once in a while). This is apparently the first book in a new series that introduces us to Brad Trasker, who I surmised was a retired operator for one of the three letter agencies. I got the impression that he had made quite a name for himself during his tenure, but he had been retired for a little bit when he finds himself in the middle of a situation.

He runs into a good Samaritan who helps him out with a flat tire, and she invites him to a corporate rollout for her company. While at this event, there is an explosion and it is apparent that this might not be an accident. Was it corporate espionage or an attempted assassination? The CEO of the company, Kylie Connor, is a young brilliant visionary and brings in Mr. Trasker to help her find out what is going on.

Very quickly it becomes apparent that things have changed rapidly in the world of espionage since Trasker left and it is not so much cloak and dagger, but NFT's and BitCoin. Mr. Mayne does a really good job showcasing Trasker's feelings of insecurity and that he is not as up to date as he should be. The fact that the world of technology is changing so quickly is something that I think that anyone over 50 can relate to.

The story itself was a bit out there. Complicated and technical, but I did get the basic point. This company is developing new technology and there are always going to be other uses for new technology that the developers may not have had in mind while developing these products. Needless to say, there are quite a few bad actors involved and things escalate rapidly.

Trasker does this thing with building his Memory Palace that while interesting, it is referenced WAY too often. One thing I enjoyed immensely was the character of Trasker's mother. That was really uniquely interesting.

I am looking forward to seeing what is next in this series. This book did conclude this story arc but it also laid the groundwork for book 2.

Intellectually delicious. Absolutely satiating.

On par with the Naturalist, which is my favorite by the author. Great main character, and lots of logical reasoning thrown in which I absolutely love. So looking forward to the next one(s)!

not as gripping as his other series

this book was fine but it didn't grab me at any point. his other books were impossible to put down/turn off, but this one doesn't hold that appeal for me.

Great story

It was a great story. There were twists and turns in the story and the narrator did a nice job telling the story. A different kind of mystery.

An excellent orator, perfect for the story.

Main character developmemt was excellent, think of it as a mix between Harvath and Davenport, with some Reacher thinking sprinkled throughout.
Excited to hear the next book and get to know some secondary characters.