From the steamy streets of Bangkok to the suffocating depths of the Laotian rainforest, A Thousand Cuts is a high-octane thriller about loyalty, betrayal, and redemption. Blending emotional depth with explosive action, Gregory Poirier’s debut novel introduces a new hero who bleeds, breaks, and doesn’t back down.

Max Starkey walked away from the CIA after a mission in Laos went wrong—horribly wrong. Seven years later, he’s living in the gray spaces between criminals and justice, earning a living recovering stolen goods for villains who know better than to ask questions. But when he’s lured to Bangkok under false pretenses, Max realizes his past isn’t done with him.

The setup: an old flame, Kelly Riggs, now married to his rival, Derek Moss. The job: steal $130 million in dictator-owned gold before a coup kicks off. The problem: everyone’s planning a double-cross—and Max is the mark.

But things get even more complicated when Max’s “companion,” Giuliana Abara, turns out to be an undercover FBI agent with secrets of her own. Caught in a deadly web of betrayal and political violence, Max must choose between old loyalties and new truths.


Loved it. Will recommend to others

This book is an action thriller in the manner of the Grey Man and Jack Reacher vein. It’s crisp precision of words, plot line and action keep you on the edge of your seat.

The book introduces Max Starkey, former disgraced CIA operative and now independent fixer agent. He’s quite the man of action in this book. The author ha teamed him up with Guiliana Abara, a sharp-tongued FBI agent who has her own secrets. Starkey had been lured back to Bangkok under false pretenses. Seven years ago a raid he was assigned to went wrong, so the going back has been off Max’s radar but he’s a fixer and what he’s been told, he gives the green light. It turns out, however, that he has been set up by his former love, Kelly Riggs, and her husband, Derek Moss. The goal is to get a lot of money out of the country but stuck in an unstable country, how to get out now is the name of the game.

Max is strong, sensitive, and loyal as described by Kelly (and I would agree as a reader) but his love of Kelly in my view was missed placed But I liked Giliana and see promise in her relationship with Max - if a sequel comes. This is a great novel filled with all the things you want in a thriller - betrayal, survival and redemption.

I’d like to thank NetGalley and Diversion Books for allowing me to read this ARC.