At this point, I am only 16% of the way into the book and I find it hard to believe that the man who wrote this is an international bestselling author.

The writing is amateurish, and for multiple reasons. First, the author has a tendency to use short, clipped sentences that he strings together, beginning each sentence with the same pronoun. This results in a sing-song description of a character that jars us out of the story rather than drawing us in (such as “He studied the growing pool of crimson. He felt paralyzed. For several seconds, he had a hard time breathing. He remained still…”). Second, the tech descriptions read more like a catalog listing the qualifications of the gun or gear, compelling me to think that the author knows little about the items he includes in his book. Lastly, cursing and dropping f-bombs can work if used appropriately. Foul language never strengthens weak writing.

The final piece is the over-the-top, suspend-disbelief-to-infinity plot items Mr. Coes asks us to believe. Main hero Tacoma “…pushed the Ducati to 156.7 mph, screaming into turns no sane man would take at 80.” A sniper purchases his rifle less than an hour before his lethal shot to his victim’s forehead from over 2000 feet away (that’s about seven football fields). This amazing shot apparently happened without bothering to sight in the rifle (to be fair, the author doesn’t say where it was bought or who sold it or if he had permission to sight in the rifle to hit a small target that’s almost a half mile away, so maybe this happened and we just aren’t told…or maybe the useless detail that the sniper just purchased the gun shouldn’t have been mentioned). There are more, including an amazing unknown codicil to the U. S. Constitution that allows the President to act almost like a monarchy, even more amazing when you consider all the Founding Fathers signed it.

And this all happens during the first 50 pages or so.

Though the writing gets a little better after that, the unbelievable continues to happen, including the conversations involving high ranking politicians. Discussions between other characters descend from dramatic to melodramatic on several occasions. I was expecting much more, based upon the author’s reputation and string of bestsellers. To say the least, I was disappointed.

Fans of Mr. Coes will probably love this book. There is plenty of action and little time to waste on delving into the different characters and what makes them tick. If you like riveting spy stories that get you involved with the characters and keep you on the edge of your seat, I recommend you pass on “The Russian.” Two stars.

4 stars
Oh, how the government can make a special team to neutralize a deadly force. Russia breaks up and their brutal Mafia comes to the States to do profound harm. Ben Coes takes this idea and runs with it.

Two American politicians and one CIA recruit are dead. The President of the United States has no choice but to declare war on the Russian Mafia and Rob Tacoma is on his own to find and kill the Russian mastermind behind the deaths.

"La Cosa Nostra, for all of its killing and violence, was more humane than the Russians. El Chapo and the Mexican cartels could be almost as brutal as the Russians, yet in every city controlled by the cartels that the Russian mafia entered, they destroyed their competition, leaving piles of corpses in their wake."

Rob Tacoma is told to not wait and act immediately. He is given no rules and has total immunity for his actions. Will he use this job for revenge for his father’s death?

This is my first Ben Coes book and it really impressed me. Rob Tacoma is a bad ass who has a large number of kills under his belt, but he has a compassionate side and donates millions of dollars to the Red Cross to assist veterans. It also looks like there is more to his work relationship with his colleague, Katie Foxx, so I suspect there will be more later in the series.

A fast-paced political thriller with lots of action and corruption. Recommend highly!

I have heard about the author Ben Coes but have never read any of this books. I jumped at the opportunity as a good espionage story is a great diversion from my normal genre of history and historical fiction.

As noted by other reviewers, the formatting was a bit of a challenge but after a bit, I was able to pick up the pattern and had not problem.

As the first in what looks like will be a series, I expected some background information to help set the stage. What was frustrating was the reference back to another series as well as too much information on appearance. Yes, it was a quick, mindless read. At one point I felt the author was trying to create a younger version of a Jack Reacher, though not a loner. Coes missed the mark on that. Maybe I will look into reading one of his other books to see if this happens to be a fluke or just his writing style.

Rating: 2.5 rounding up to 3.

Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an early access edition in exchange for an honest review.

Not really a suspense book based on how this was written. So much wasted space describing how people are dressed, what their hair looked like, what kind of cars they drove, etc. Choppy and awkward dialogue and sentences. This book was pretty blah.

I wish I could have actually read this entire book. Unfortunately, the formatting broke up the text frequently and had a variation of number consistently sprinkled throughout. I tried on several different devices but couldn't get into the story-line completely due to these issues.

This was my first book by the author. I thought, being the first in a new series, that it would be easy to understand. However, I found the author repeatedly referred to events that occurred in his previous series, and it left me feeling confused as to what I missed.
It's an okay book. Quite typical of the Vince Flynn/Brad Thor genre. There was plenty of action, and the plot moved along rapidly. A few too many cute coincidences and unrealistic situations for my taste. The ending was rushed, and disappointing.
Good summer reading for the beach.

Thank you to NetGalley, Ben Coes and St. Martin's Press for this ARC.

This was a decent enough story, but it wasn't great. It says "Rob Tacoma #1", so maybe the rest of the series will be better?

I was very excited to get this ARC of the Russian and it did not disappoint. I have read all of the Dewey Andreas series and knew about the Rob Tacoma character but it was great to get a new book to learn about his background and set up a new series about him. The pacing of the story moved along well, the plot was very timely and the action was non-stop. The violence in the book was necessary but not over the top and did not dominate the plot to the point of being gratuitous. I am definitely looking forward to the next installment in this spin off series.

Action packed! I’m not one who usually grabs an espionage novel, but this spy thriller had me from the first chapter.

First sentence: Rob Tacoma sped the Italian sports car across downtown Washington DC.

Sentence that hooked me: But what he thought was the flickering of a light was something altogether different.

This is my first time reading Ben Coes work and I loved it. The story premise was current and flush with history at the same time. It took a fun and creative approach to how the CIA could operate on American soil and the action and intrigue just kept building from there. The ending left me satisfied and wanting more so I am glad that this is the start to a new series.

The characters are fantastic. They immediately grabbed my attention with personality, entertaining dialogue and intriguing backstories. After finishing this book I saw that Dewey who came in at the end has a whole series so I will be checking his story and series out shortly.

As a fan of political intrigue and action stories I found this story entertained and provided me with good for thought regarding skill sets, historic trends and government agencies. I love it when a book captures my interest so quickly and fully. Looking forward to what happens next and how this task force addresses the ending of this story!

Thank you NetGalley, Ben Coes and St. Martin’s Press for
The chance to read this book and share my opinion.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to.

Another thriller with the Russian "mob" as the baddies. It's serviceable and a quick read because it's all action, very little plot. The most interesting plot device is a secret codicil to the U.S. Constitution that allows the president, in dire emergencies, to unleash the CIA on American soil. Actually, of course, this is forbidden. Thus unbound, our hero, Rob Tacoma -- an unfortunate name choice that sounds like a directive to loot a major city in Washington State -- becomes a Russki-seeking missile. The story gallops along, taxing credulity but not the brain, and provides blood-soaked thrills and patriotic satisfaction. Towards the end the writing seems to taper off, a kind of verbal exhaustion that mirrors the sharp taste -- but empty calories -- of this un-novel novel.

Almost DNF this book. As I do not like unfinished books, I forced myself to get through it. This thriller fell short for me for a lot of reasons.
1) It is description heavy, everything was overly described often on several occasions and mostly had nothing to with the overall story.
2) This foul language was abundant in this story. The F-word was used liberally. Which was a bit uncomfortable for me.
3) The character's felt flat. I want to care about SOMEBODY in a book, and this did not have this element in it.
4) It was boring, a bit predictable, and the plot twists just did not work.

Now I love a good thriller and spy novel, but this one just didn't do it for me. Thankfully I didn't waste any money on this one, as I got an ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.

This is a great new series that builds on Ben Coes earlier work with Dewey Andreas, this series is with Rob Tacoma which some already now from the other books. Several characters from the books about Dewey appear in this one also. I really enjoyed it and will ofcourse continue and follow these adventures. I must thank #Netgalley and #StMartinsPress for letting me read #TheRussian

The Russian was barely palatable for me. This book was heavy on descriptions of everything from Rob Tacoma's hair (multiple times) to the fancy cars, to the helicopters and planes and to the guns that people were using with regularity. What it was not heavy on was character or plot development or good dialogue. Rob is tasked with wiping out members of the Russian mafia after two high profile politicians are murdered. What follows is a bunch of murders by Rob and others as he climbs his way up the ladder of the destruction. One of the few female characters is supposed to be one of the top guns-for-hire in the country and yet she has a scene that is completely helpless, hysterical female. And the end of the book is completely open-ended. While it's the first in the series it feels more like a TV season cliffhanger than the end of a book. Pass on this unless you love the formulaic James Patterson type novels.

I felt like I was watching a movie as I read this book. I kept trying to picture an actor to play Tacoma. This is a super-charged thriller about the ruthless Russian mob that has infiltrated the US and has murdered high-profile politicians. Can Tacoma find the leader before it’s too late.? Read this fast-paced book to find out!

Coes pulls off a spectacular feat of high energy in a kinetically murderous bit of entertainment. A Coes novel is a place where lives are decided in milliseconds -- tasty stuff for action hungry readers.

I'm not able to post a review because it is not available yet.
This novel has a compelling plot and great character descriptions and twists, but gets bogged down by some shifts from high points to less compelling parts or flashbacks right as the action is building. Also, it could use some editing, as many things are described multiple times with similes or adjectives that could be pared down to more concisely convey meaning -- as it is, the multiple descriptions or descriptors often muddle the message as they contradict or are redundant. Also, it is a bit strange that so many people in the covert or underground worlds would be so flashy with their cars or behavior when trying to fly under the radar. Overall, lots of fun and different types of action and settings as a plot builds to avenge assassinations tied to organized crime.

The Russian was absolutely awesome. I had difficulty putting this one down as I wanted to just keep reading. I hope Ben Coes does more with this character as I would definitely read them.