The Venetian Judgment by David Stone

From the Publisher

An explosive new thriller from the New York Times bestselling author.

CIA cleaner Micah Dalton has taken his revenge against the Serbian gang who shot his lover. Then he receives a mysterious jade box containing a stainless steel glasscutter. Someone is sending him a very serious message, a message that will force him back into action against a foe out to unleash chaos upon the world...

Publishers Weekly

At the start of bestseller Stone's formulaic third thriller to feature CIA "cleaner" Micah Dalton (after The Orpheus Deception), Dalton takes revenge late one night outside Venice's Piazza San Marco on one of the Serbian thugs responsible for the death of his lover, Cora Vasari. Dalton's actions result in his becoming involved in the search for a high-level traitor in the CIA's ranks, who's believed to be behind the brutal murder of elderly Mildred Durant, an unofficial adviser to an NSA decryption team known as the Glass Cutters, in her London home. Durant worked on the Venona Project, the interception of Soviet cable traffic, during the cold war. It appears Stalin "had a source close to Roosevelt who was never exposed." While no one will mistake Stone for John le Carré, series fans are sure to root for the unstoppable Dalton, compared at one point to "the newly risen Christ, only blond and not quite so loving, with a bullet scar on one cheek and no intention at all of turning the other." (Apr.)

Jonathan Pearce - Library Journal

CIA "cleaner" Micah Dalton is in bad standing with the Company but manages to acquire yet another wound and slaughter five bad guys in the first few pages of this suspenseful sequel to the author's two previous breath-stoppers (The Echelon Vendetta and The Orpheus Deception). The novel's violence is juicily graphic, and Stone's main evildoer is nearly satanic. Stone's work is not smoothly literary, instead moving in leaps from one subplot, one location, and one character set to another. Even so, his descriptions of the many different settings are nicely detailed; there are numerous characters, but not an excessive amount because of Stone's proficiency at rendering each memorable. His technique lends authenticity to the main story line, part revenge tale, part search for a possible mole in one of America's intelligence agencies. In the end, readers may be left with as many questions as answers. Recommended for all public libraries.

Product Details