Joshua Hood

My first library book since lockdown - and I have no idea why I wanted to read such a blokey book. If there was a Man Book award, rather than the Man Booker, this would win. The story, about a bionic assassin seeking to uncover the truth about his friend's death in Venezuela, was completely ruined by the writing, complete with childish onomatopoeia (thwap, braaaaap, BOOM!) and ridiculous dialogue ('I've got something better than a plan - I've got a bag of guns' and 'We're going to show more diiiiiiiie!') Not to mention all the flashbacks in italics and military terminology that constantly requires translation.

Joshua Hood is apparently one of many authors writing under the Robert Ludlum 'brand' (complete with trademark) and according to fans of the series, this novel is a successful imitator, but honestly, I despair of the male imagination if cliched film action scenes triumph over character and intelligible conversation. No more for me, thanks! show less

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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The bullet wound to his shoulder ached like someone was hammering nails through his skin.

Hayes had been here before, wounded, alone, and on the run. Wanting to quit, but unable to, thanks to the mind job the Treadstone docs had done on him. Survival: It was the only thing that mattered.

And revenge the voice reminded him.

WHAT'S THE TREADSTONE RESURRECTION ABOUT?
Not too long ago, Adam Hayes left the black-ops program, Treadstone, and show more invented a new life for himself as a contractor in Washington. It wasn't an easy thing to do, but for several reasons, it was the thing he had to do.

But out of the blue, an old friend and colleague sends him an email containing four pictures. The subject line of the email reads "By the time you get this I'll be dead." Which, you've got to admit, will get your attention. Not only has his friend been killed, but a group of men have tried to kill Hayes twice (and almost succeeded both times).

It turns out that the men who killed his friend found the email and traveled from Venezuala to Washington to keep Hayes from doing anything with the information. It's safe to say that they underestimated who they were going up against. It's not every day that operatives find themselves trying to take out someone like a Treadstone assassin.

A combination of training, reflexes, and good friends make survival something he can accomplish. But revenge will take allies old and new; a trip to South America and back; and embracing everything he fought so hard to leave behind.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT THE TREADSTONE RESURRECTION?
Okay, it takes very little time to have a pretty good idea what's going to happen in this book—you know that Hayes is going to get his revenge and stop whatever plot his pal told him about. The questions are: how many and which of his allies will survive, how many bad guys will Hayes take out, and which one will be the hardest to kill?* It's all about execution at this point.

* I was surprised by the answers to 1 and 3, by the way.

And Hood's execution was pretty good. Without realizing it, I raced through this book in about half the time I'd scheduled for it (and I honestly didn't realize how quickly I was reading). There's not a wasted word, the prose is smooth, the action is fast, the pacing is tight, the ammo is plentiful—you just find the pages melting away.

The characterization is pretty thin—but it's enough. You get enough of an idea about who Adam Hayes is and what makes him tick to work, but not much more. Ditto for the main bad guys. But that's not what this book is about—it's about escapist thrills. And it delivers that.

Suspend your disbelief (might be easier to just lock your disbelief in a small room somewhere), sit back, and enjoy. show less

The Treadstone Transgression is the next entry in Robert Ludlum's Treadstone series featuring Adam Hayes, and while it was fast-paced and a lot of fun, I don't think it had quite the impact of the first two books. This one has Adam in Haiti to extract a whistleblower, and naturally, not everything is at it seems and everything goes downhill for Adam the minutes he steps foo on Haitian soil. There were a few things that did push the envelope and your belief system a bit too much in this one, show more and I think that's why I didn't quite enjoy it as much as the first two books.

First of all, Adam is a reluctant hero which is why I enjoy his character so much. His only goal is to be reunited with his wife and child, but the powers-that-be in the government always seem to have other plans for Adam and push his aging body to the limits in one difficult assignment after another. This fuels his anger so often his missions are full of angst as he drives himself to extremes in order to return home in one piece, both physically and mentally.

For the most part, the story lines were believable, and although I appreciate the author trying to put a little of the Haitian culture into this book, some of it kind of pushed the limits. With the masks? Yes, I get that as I know people who lived there, but would most people just stick around when bullets and guns are going off around them? I don't think there are too many places where bystanders would do that. But I do think some of it was over the top which made it more of a struggle to read for me.

I do think the plot was the weakest part of this book. While the author's writing style is engaging and he definitely knows his way around technology and military terminology, I did feel like the some of the suspense that kept me flipping pages in the previous books was missing. Maybe it was the over-the-top action that threw me out of the story or just some questionable actions, but something was lacking. My sympathy for Adam did not lessen however, and I felt empathetic towards his situation and the people who keep using him to fight their battles, despite his insistence that he is through with Treadstone.

Verdict
The Treadstone Transgression was not the strongest entry in this series, but it was still enjoyable. The author is knowledgeable, and I was happy when I saw the action was to take place primarily in Haiti as I think the place's struggles need to be more highlighted, something this book definitely does. However, the overall plot was a bit over the top for me, and while the action was fast-paced, you do have to suspend belief at times and just kind of go with it. But I am not yet through with this series, and plan to read the next book (The Treadstone Rendition, March 7 2023) in this series as I am invested in Adam and his desire to be with his family. show less

The Treadstone Resurrection by Joshua Hood

What if you had worked for Uncle Sam for years, been a lethal human weapon and finally decided to return to normal live to spend time with your family? What if the life you had lead in the military had made it difficult to be as you once were but you were doing everything in your power to return to a simpler more loving life with wife and son and then one day it all fell apart and every skill you had put behind you was suddenly required again? That show more happened ot Adam Hayes in this first book of a new series based on the training ground Bourne went through in the trilogy about him written long ago.

Having read the trilogy I was interested to see what a spin-off book might be like written by a man with military skills in his arsenal and set in the present. And, I am glad I read this book though sometimes for some reason it reminded me of the movies Expendables and A-Team. It is my opinion that when reading fiction one sometimes has to leave reality, believability and plausibility behind and just enjoy the ride and not dissect whether or not one man could realistically do all that Hayes did.

What I liked:
* Adam Hayes: He seemed like a good man who had been given a raw deal. I would love for him to have a nice safe life with his wife and son but it seems highly unlikely in the series this book introduces
* Deano & his wife: wonderful people that were good friends to Adam
* The introduction of Waters and JT – they might show up in future books in the series
* Some of the people introduced that played parts in the story: Boggs, Ford, Izzy, Shaw
* That good prevailed over evil
* The action scenes were believable
* That when the book ended I wondered what would happen next

What I wanted to know
* How Hayes get all of the gear to Venezuela when he parachuted in
* How many others from Treadstone might be around to show up in future books
* More of Hayes’s backstory

What I didn’t like:
* The bad guys I was meant not to like

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I read more in this series? Yes

Thank you to Head of Zeus & Midas Public Relations for the ARC – This is my honest review.

4 Stars show less