As fans of this series know well, Joe Ledger's psyche was fractured by the traumatic experiences of his youth and he is barely able to keep it together on a good day. That makes him rather ill equipped to handle the devastating events that ended the last book, Rage, and it is obvious that he will never be the same. The question then becomes, what will happen to Joe's mind if he loses the battle that rages within him? And then, what damage will he do to those around him? Those questions and more weigh heavily on the minds of everyone that cares about him, but at the same time they all know that Rogue Team International is not able to stand against their current enemies without Joe Ledger. It is a no-win scenario for everyone involved and the stakes have never been higher.

I have been looking forward to this one ever since the last book's shocking ending and I could only hope that Joe Ledger would find a way to weather the storm. Jonathan Maberry deftly uses Joe's inner monologue, which readers of the series are very well accustomed to, as a way to reveal the struggle within his mind. The darkness within him continues to grow and Joe attempts to balance a desire for revenge against the risk of losing what little is left of his humanity. Now with a broken heart to go with his broken mind he quickly realizes that he just can't pull it off.  The Joe Ledger that somehow successfully controlled his multiple inner personalities on a knife's edge in order to protect the world from evil is no more. And it isn't safe for anyone to be near the result. 

Except for the change to Joe himself, there really isn't much here that is new, but somehow that was more than enough for me. I quickly consumed this one and am definitely looking forward to next installment of the series. Ray Porter does his usual amazing job with the audiobook version and his performance definitely drove home the inner conflict going on within Joe's mind.