If my life was on the line and I needed a fictional character to rescue me, Joe Ledger would have to be near the top of my preferred list. This ex-Baltimore cop is the stereotypical killer that fights on the side of good, and he is more than willing to do some very evil things to make sure he accomplishes the mission. He never monologues with the bad guy, he just gets the job done no matter how bad the odds are. So it's always an exciting day when a new Joe Ledger book comes out and offers a chance to spend more time with Joe and the rest of Havoc Team as they save the world from yet another existential threat. This time a number of old threats are back to sow chaos and it is going to take all of RTI's resources to keep them at bay. Is there anything new to be found here or this just old material that's been recycled to feed the hungry fans of the series?

For me it is a little too much of the latter. I much prefer that dead villains stay dead and that captured enemies stay captured, but clearly Jonathan Mayberry doesn't share that opinion. I'll give him a pass for the recurring bad guy that appears to be immortal, he's been around for a lot of the series, but why do the rest of the antagonists this time around also need to be recycled from prior books? I don't know the answer to that question, but I do it took me longer to get into this one because of it. I found myself much more engaged when the story started pulling on a thread from Joe's origin story and the event that began the fracturing of his personalities decades ago. That storyline felt like it could push Joe over the edge and past the point of no return, so it grabbed my attention more than the main antagonists. In the end though, it's another solid story in the overall series, even if there isn't very much original about it.

Ray Porter's voice is Joe Ledger and frankly it would be hard for me to listen to any other book narrated by Ray where he uses this voice for another character. His performance is excellent as always.