The Adversary

by: Michael Walters

Published by: Berkley Prime Crime

Reviewed by Sharon Broom

The Adversary is the second in Michael Walter’s crime series. The author’s debut is The Shadow Walker.

The Adversary is a police procedural set in Mongolia. Muunokhoi is a gang leader who has ruled the underbelly of Ulan Baatar for over twenty years and who has previously been untouchable. Now he is on trial. But the trial is unraveling (some of the evidence has been forged) and Nergui and Doripalam, who are members of the Serious Crime Team, understand that the problem lies within their own organization.

Muunokhoi has friends in high places and Nergui and Doripalam, who do not always trust each other, must determine who they can trust. They are determined to bring the crime lord to justice, but their lives hang in the balance as they investigate.

The Adversary is fast-paced thriller that jettisons into overdrive when subplots emerge. The judge in the aborted trial reports a crime, a missing teenager causes a media frenzy, a woman’s death complicates everything, and police criticism mounts while the compromised case switches between some missing nomads and an unlikely hero.

Walters’s attention to details is delicious and he is a master stor teller. The threads of the plot converge and the reader is privy to bits of information about Mongolian life that add a rich flavor to an already stunning novel.

I haven’t read The Shadow Walker, but will buy it as soon as I can.

Armchair Interviews: Michael Walters is an author to watch

Author’s Web site: http://www.TheShadowWalker.com