3 out of 5 stars A disappointment compared to expectations

I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately, it fell flat for me. The ingredients of a great espionage/heist thriller are present and, the author is clearly talented. However, the book suffers from a few flaws:

1. The plot has no true conflict for the characters to overcome. Yes, they pull off a high-stakes heist through a shootout with cartel soldiers, but nothing goes wrong. They have a contingency plan for everything. The problem of moving over a billion dollars in cash half way around the world hits no snags. They easily buy gold bullion and launder the rest of the cash into banks with barely a pause. It all goes exactly as planned or is quickly mitigated through extensive planning. Nobody slips up, and nothing really unexpected happens, which makes stealing a billion dollars of cash seem like a low stakes operation in the end.

2. Every person the characters run into has some kind of encyclopedic knowledge of history, gear, conspiracy theories, etc., and wants to flaunt that knowledge immediately and at length. It ends up taking up a portion of most chapters and ultimately halting or entirely derailing the pacing and plot. I personally enjoy descriptions of the gear, weapons, and methods used but when relevant. Unfortunately, this turns into a recitation of items/manufacturers/people famous in those circles with no real relevance to the plot at hand.

There are other things in the content of the book that I personally disagree with, but I’m not going to knock the author for those. It reads a bit like a self-insert for the main character, but completely divorcing your own thoughts and views from the characters, especially in your first book, seems like a huge undertaking. Overall, I finished the book hoping it would improve but am disappointed with where it ended up. Hopefully the other books in the series are better than the first, but I’m not sure I can power through to find out.