The Exfiltrator
Author: Garner Simmons
4.5 out of 5 stars
Archaeologist Micheal Corbett heads to Spain to lead the excavation of a cave that was revealed after an earthquake. Soon after arriving, he’s contacted by his other employer: the CIA. Along with his passion for archaeology, Micheal Corbett is also an exfiltration specialist, someone who extracts important targets in dangerous circumstances. This time, the person needing extraction is Tariq, an old friend of Corbett’s. Tariq’s father is a powerful cleric in Iraq, who is preaching against radical Islam. He was recently attacked by ISIS and is now on the edge of death. The CIA need Corbett to get Tariq out of Spain before ISIS finds him, so he can return to Iraq to support his father. Unfortunately, an ISIS sleeper cell already knows that Tariq is in Spain and is closing in. Will Corbett get Tariq out of Spain in time?
Overall, this is a really good book with a lot of action. I was intrigued just by reading the story’s summary and wondered how these different things were going to work together. I liked the way the author wove the character’s backstories throughout the story instead of devoting entire chapters to them. There were also history tangents, which is to be expected from a book with archaeologists. If everything I just wrote sounds good to you, then you should read this book.
I will say that I did not see the ending coming. In retrospect, I should have thought that it would end like that, but I was still surprised. Corbett also realizes that there’s a mole feeding information to ISIS, which is confirmed to the reader when it switches to the perspective of the ISIS soldiers. I wasn’t sure who it was. I thought a couple of people were suspicious, but the author did a good job of throwing me off.
Despite these good things, I decided to rate it 4.5 stars instead of five because there are a couple of things that could be better. Sometimes the author tells the reader how a character is feeling, even though he also does a good job of showing it. Doing both made the flow a little awkward at times. Also, the author included unnecessary technical details. For example, there’s a long paragraph about the winch and the elevator cage that they use to go underground into the cave. I didn’t need to know those details, and I wasn’t interested in them.
As a warning, there are a lot of deaths in this book, which isn’t surprising given the plot being about terrorists. Although some of the deaths are horrific, the author doesn’t linger on the details or make it too gory.
Current price through Amazon Kindle: $4.99
Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Exfiltrator-Garner-Simmons/dp/B08YQCNSWQ
(I do not benefit from the use of this link.)