Rules of Betrayal by Christopher Reich

Rules of Betrayal is the third installment of the "Rules" series starring Jonathon and Emma Ransom. Jonathon is a doctor who has worked with Doctors Without Borders in the past but is now freelancing in Afghanistan. His wife is a former double agent who was assigned to marry Dr. Ransom and his world-hopping assignments as a member of Doctors Without Borders as a cover to do her spy work in the past.

All of this is quite complicated, but deftly explained by Reich in the first few pages of his new book. I had never even heard of Reich before I read this book, let alone read the other books in the series and I was not lost (although I will not be going back to the other books to catch up either - Reich has already caught me up).

The premise of the book is that Dr. Ransom and his estranged wife Emma are both caught up in an international arms deal that involves the Taliban attempting to get hold of a WMD that the U.S. Air Force lost in 1984 in the mountains of Pakistan near the border of Afghanistan. Both Emma and Jonathon Ransom are now in the swirl of events.

Are the events in the book plausible?

Hardly, but they are interesting and Reich has a knack for writing action sequences and dialogue that works. I found myself sucked into the story and staying up late to keep on reading. In the end, that's what it's all about, isn't it?

I give it 5 stars out of a possible 5 stars. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Rules of Betrayal by Christopher Reich.

Reviewed July 20, 2010