A Clean Kill (Garrett Mann Book 1)

Overall, this is another solid entry into The Black Flag Story Universe.

I like the usual high attentiveness to detail in terms of the environment, character interactions, combat and world events taking place in the series. The main characters are fairly well developed, personality wise. To the point I'd love to see them have their own arc that focuses more on a story line that more relates to their chosen profession and not the usual stopping conspiracy or shadow cabal. (Thats not a complaint, I really enjoy this stuff.)

The book has a nice balancing of natural comedic relief, action, (lots of action, it's by Steven after all) believable narrative and overall flow. Something I don't see often in other books is a creative and real effort being put into a bilingual person or persons having a conversation. Instead of just having the narration imply or say the conversation is taking place in a foreign language and writing the conversation in English, Steven has the conversation actually take place in the foreign language and translates to the reader by having the character translate somehow or speaking in broken English/whatever language, and/or re writing parts of the conversation on English.

Combat and action is very believable, fairly easy to understand and follow. Even if your understanding of different forms of fighting is intermediate or non existent.

Story framework is typical of the Black Flag universe. It may sound repetitive but while reading, I did not find it to be that way. This universe has ALOT of life in it. Characters in the other books are mentioned and used but not overly rellied on. They dont over shadow or hijack the new characters story, just mearly help along the way.

Only real gripe I have. It's not much of one being it's a thriller book and there's good character development. I do wish that there were a couple more of the slow periods or moments where the chatacters weren't focused on the mission at hand (as in not doing something mission or job related) and those moments were a little more in depth, rather than a casual mention. I think it would really seal the deal of making the reader relate to the characters as people. That said, I highly recommend this book and any book in the Black Flag Arc.

So I have been a fan of Konkoly’s three previous series, which all exist in the same world, and have overlapping characters in the periphery. This book is outstanding, and proves that the author is still evolving.

The book is about an unorthodox FBI team of outcasts whose job is to hunt down serial killers, with a focus on the Southwestern US, led by Garrett Mann. Each member of the team has had someone close to them taken, and for them it’s personal.

When they finally get a break on a case they have been working on for over a year, they unknowingly stumble upon something much larger and more insidious than they anticipated. With their lives in imminent danger, the only way out, is through, even if it means breaking the law to do it.

I lived the Black Flagged, Dekker, and Devin series from Konkoly. His characters are always well drawn and relatable, and the books are well paced. If you haven’t read his other books, I highly recommend them all.

I have read all Steven Konkoly books written on Amazon; he keeps getting better with the stories and plots; I have enjoyed each and every book; this new Garrett Mann series, as with other series introduces new characters but finds a way to include past characters from earlier books we enjoyed; Steven does it extremely well; Waiting on Garrett Mann book #2. Thanks for great books and enjoyable and believable plots.

I have read several of the author's other series and have more sitting on my Kindle awaiting their turn. This book was just as enjoyable as his others which I have read. I was surprised to find that this series seems to start after a point of the characters having already been introduced. I figure at least one of the characters from this book is from one of the series that I just haven't read yet. I certainly recognized a few other names - some of whom have their own series. I just felt like there is a greater depth of information on a few of these characters available from a previous series - so that lets me know what I'll be reading soon. Lol I have no problem being dropped into the middle of action (for any book, not just by this author) - it's fun reading all the background info that gets sprinkled through the rest of the story. There were a few typos and skipped small words (and I think I noticed a wrong name at one point), but the mistakes were far fewer than many big-name authors I have read and the typos never threw me out of the story. In fact, it was difficult to put down the story. I will be looking forward to the next installment in this series, and should have finished all the remaining previous series so that I can catch all the fun mentions that will pop up!

A Clean Kill (Garrett Mann Book 1) by Steven Konkoly is a fast-paced, action packed thriller that grabs you from the beginning and does not let go until the end.

FBI agent Garrett Mann is in charge of a special task force investigating a serial killer who has left a trail of chopped up bodies from New Mexico to Minnesota. Finally, they get a lead and discover the killer actually works for a secret CIA unit. This is where the book begins to develop some holes. It is never clear why the U. S. government created this secret unit, what its purpose is and why its leaders condone serial murder and torture.

Mann is something of a loose cannon who does things his own way. He and his team are forced to go off the grid and become a rogue group rather than follow FBI leadership directive to shutdown. A group of former Mexican police officers are recruited to augment the FBI team.

A Clean Kill is a pretty good action thriller if you suspend reality.

Warning: there are some pretty graphic descriptions of murder, torture and dismembered bodies that do not make this a story for everyone. Also the ending is not really the end, but a prequel to another book that continues the story.

I thought this book to be quite entertaining, as far as it goes. Action packed. Has a beginning and a middle. But it lacks any ending. The story just stops. (Oh, a cliffhanger!) And the sequel doesn't come out for a year. I doubt I will remember much about it by next May. I find this very frustrating, and I won't be recommending it to friends who are readers.

If you're not already a Konkoly fan, then I don't recommend you start with this one. Go read the Jakarta Pandemic and the rest of the Alex Fletcher books first (five stars, all around). You're going to need an acquired taste before venturing into this particular tale. You see, this one starts with a very long, slow burn -- unusual for Konkoly -- all the way through part one and into part two, before it finally picks up the pace. At first, I was unexcited to watch unremarkable characters slog though commonplace serial-killer tropes, but I stuck with it because, knowing Konkoly, there had to be more than meets the eye. And yes, my patience paid off. Once the setup was finally revealed to be merely the tip of the iceberg, and the truly sinister nature of that iceberg began to take shape, I was riveted til the end. In true Konkoly fashion, I was left pondering yet another unique conspiracy taking place on a massive scale and easily suspending any disbelief. I could see it actually happening, and I can't wait to find out how Mann and his team resolve it in the sequel. If this was a stand-alone, I'd only give it three stars, but I'm going with four in anticipation of how certain I am that the sequel will stick the landing.

This had all of the elements for a really good book... FBI agents, great characters, A different kind of plot....

But there were some serious issues. Way too many acronyms. Then way too many characters to keep track of. It felt like someone took a good book, then went back and added in every bit of knowledge they had about weapons and government agencies to pump it up. And all the local law enforcement were just too cooperative. You got my deputy killed? That's ok....

It was interesting enough that I finished it. Im giving it 3 stars because I did finish it. But I skimmed over the parts that were too convoluted. After all that it ended on a cliffhanger. I won't be reading the next one.