BOOK REVIEW : 51st DIRECTIVE BY MICHAEL AGLIOLO

TITLE : 51st Directive

AUTHOR : Michael Agliolo

GENRE : Adult, Thriller, Action, Crime

FBRC RATING : 4 stars

BLURB :

The deepest parts of the Internet hold the secrets of a world that will never be the same as Homeland Security Presidential Directive 51 overrides every freedom you believed you had when you woke up this morning.

A handwritten letter, sent to the FBI unleashes a trail of deceit putting the armed forces of the United States in direct conflict with each other.

Discover the power of the 51st Directive through the eyes of FBI agent Erica Brewer as she and Washington D.C. Detective Sam Marco uncovers a secret government conspiracy that turns the United States Constitution into dry ink on parchment.

The 51st Directive will keep you up at night reading and up the rest of the night praying it doesn’t come true.

No one knows it exists. IT DOES.

FBRC REVIEW :

DISCLAIMER : I received an ARC( advance review copy) of this book for free from the author, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Thank you, Michael Agliolo for providing me with an e-ARC of this book.

Michael Agliolo has written a book full of action and adventure that will leave you excited for the story and excited for how its all going to turn out. I loved this book and the plot. I found the plot to be very interesting and unique. The characters were great and simple. The plot was carried out beautifully. The story was very entertaining and engaging from beginning to end. I found the book enjoyable.

The story is of a head-strong, take no prisoners-attitude FBI Agent Erica Brewer who due to her no-nonsense attitude has to work in the mail room as punishment. There as she sorts through the various mails, she finds a letter addressed to her Boss. The letter written by someone who claims to be dead piques her interest. What starts off as an excuse to get out of the mail room, soon turns into a chase and run of their lifetime.

Erica is strong, sassy and loves her job. Her personality is great without being obnoxious. There were moments where the 5-second look she talks about was getting a bit over the top for me. I did roll my eyes at those moments, but soon got caught up in the story.

Marco is a great character without being overtly macho and exuding the usual alpha traits seen in books. He was subtle in terms of the Alphaness and wasn’t egotistical. He was a great supporting character and well balanced for Erica’s character. Their dynamic was great. I wanted more of their banter, but the story was very much focused on the political conspiracy that is threatening to take down the nation. There were at times in the beginning chapters were Marcos’s character is talked about as Sam, which confused me as we didn’t know his full name at the time. Other than that the plot and characters were solid. but soon got caught up in the story.

I loved Ron’s character. His sequences were laugh-out-loud funny. He was interesting character that added a little bit of humor into the plot. Anthony Hayes also was great with his brand of security toys and nerd talk. Shreya, Gilliam, Colonel were all amazing throughout.

The villains in this book were great. I loved how the author put two of the most unlikely people to be the antagonists in this book. How power changes the way people think and act is very well demonstrated in this book. The idea of someone powerful using it against the very own people whom they have sworn to serve as a fascinating aspect of this story. I read many political themed crime/action-thrillers. Most set in the US almost always have the Middle-eastern countries or Muslims as terrorists. The number of movies where the same rhetoric is pushed out is unbelievable. So to have a book that has political intrigue in it with some of the key players being the villains was a fresh of breath air to me. I loved how the author took a Presidential directive and put a spin on it and provided the readers with a vastly different and mind-blowing scenario.

The romance in this book was not insta-love, but more of a coming together of two adults who work closely together. Their relationship progressed at a believable pace with the right amount of attraction on both ends. Their dynamic was good. The story wasn’t shadowed by their romance and therefore the plot shined very well throughout the book.

I definitely recommend checking out this book as it is a very quick read. Its highly entertaining and engaging from the get-go. The book will capture your interest from the first chapter to the end. The pacing of the book, the plot and characters were all great. Overall it was 4 stars read for me and highly recommend it to all action-thriller lovers out there.