Book Review: Blindfold Game

Reviewed By: Catherine Thompson - RAM

Blindfold Game     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Dana Stabenow
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Military   Government Agency   Terrorists   Thriller
St. Martin’s Minotaur, $31.95 hardcover, 260 pages

A CIA informant witnesses a bombing in a street in Pattaya Beach, Thailand, and she trails two Asian men from the scene all the way to Heathrow, where they board a plane for Moscow. She in turn informs Hugh Rincon, a CIA analyst specializing in Asian relations. Hugh returns with her to Hong Kong, where they learn that the materials for a dirty bomb are on their way to Alaska. Unfortunately, Washington is focused on the Middle East, not the Far East, and Hugh can’t get anyone to take him seriously.

Hugh’s wife Sara Lange is the Executive Officer aboard the US Coast Guard cutter Sojourner Truth, patrolling the Maritime Border Line and trying to keep the Russian trawlers on their own side of the line. With no one in Washington willing to believe what his evidence tells him, Hugh heads for Alaska and the Sojourner Truth, in a race against time and tide.

Blindfold Game is a reasonably decent thriller. It didn’t keep me up at nights reading to find out what happens next, but the tension ratchets up by increments until the explosive climax.

I enjoyed this one more than the last couple of Stabenow offerings I’ve read. The characterizations aren’t much to write home about; I had trouble believing in the attachment between Rincon and his wife. But the plot is strong and has a pretty scary premise, one that is just plausible enough to give a person chills reading about it. And as always, Stabenow’s research is impeccable. Unfortunately, she tends to overload the reader with extraneous detail. Those long paragraphs detailing a minor character’s background would have been much better spent on deepening the main characters.

Catherine Thompson - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Catherine Thompson - RAM