In the ongoing Jack Noble Novels by L. T. Ryan, it's imperative for the reader to start at Noble Beginnings and continue to experience these stories in order. It's not because the novels won't stand on their own, it's because for maximum benefit and to understand the progression of the characters in this series, each book takes the reader to another level of how their "business" plays upon their psyches, personalities, and faint grasps of some kind of morality.
The problem in reviewing the series at this point is the inability to divulge important plot points that have carried over from the previous episodes without ruining the experience of each collection. You know I rarely include spoilers - and always mark them when I do.
What I can tell you is I like Jack again in this edition of the series. He's weary, has lost a bit of his sharpness, but is anxious to get back to the "things" he left undone. In order to do that, he and Frank Skinner must cooperate on certain assignments, so he teams up with one of Frank's best female agents (Jasmine) to clean up a critical mess that threatens the security of America in multiple ways.
Jack feels responsible for this particular mess although he had no idea what he was hired to obtain when he did it for the all-world gangster called "the old man". When "the old man" sold what Jack had provided for him to the Russians, Jack learned just what kind of dangerous information he'd secured for the gangster. And he intended to get it back.
In the meantime, Clarissa's assignment merges with Jack's and Jasmine's while both Bear and Pierre plan a rescue of little Mandy when she is kidnapped again, this time during a strange bank robbery.
Once again these jobs take all the players to different parts of the country and world and eventually back to New York City. Action, killing, distrust, betrayal - all present in Episodes 6 - 10 of Season Two. Jack wants to retire, take Clarissa and make a life for them. As you might expect, their lives can never be easily resolved. Obligations, both professional and personal, seem to always keep them apart except at critical moments when they save each other's lives.
There's a lot going on with each character in this installment. Internal and external struggles, emotional upheavals, and always trying to stay one or two steps ahead of trouble but rarely allowed that opportunity.
Season Two ends with another cliffhanger from Jack's not-too-distant past, and it works perfectly to keep the reader pressing on and ready to venture with Jack to London on a more personal mission.
I recommend these Jack Noble Novels if you're a fan of intense international intrigue, high crimes, good guys and bad guys, and the muddled mess of deciphering who's who and what's what. L. T. Ryan does a good job of concealing, mingling, and amping up the conflicts. Minimum profanity. Definitely violence.
Father, please continue to provide Lee with stories to tell. Bless his life and home. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.