Book Tour: Fault Line by Barry Eisler

From the publisher:

Silicon Valley: the eccentric inventor of a new encryption application is murdered in an apparent drug deal. Istanbul: a cynical undercover operative receives a frantic call from his estranged brother, a patent lawyer who believes he’ll be the next victim. And on the sun-drenched slopes of Sand Hill Road, California’s nerve center of money and technology, old family hurts sting anew as two brothers who share nothing but blood and bitterness wage a desperate battle against a faceless enemy.

Alex Treven has sacrificed everything to achieve his sole ambition: making partner in his high-tech law firm. But then the inventor of a technology Alex is banking on is murdered, the patent examiner who reviewed the innovation dies--and Alex himself narrowly escapes an attack in his own home. Off balance, out of ideas, and running out of time, he knows that the one person who can help him is the last person he’d ever ask: his brother.

Ben Treven is a military liaison element, an elite undercover soldier paid to “find, fix, and finish” high-value targets in the United States global war on terror. Disenchanted with what he sees as America’s culture of denial and decadence, Ben lives his detached life in the shadows because the black ops world is all he really knows--and because other than Alex, whom he hasn’t spoken to since their mother died, his family is long gone.

But blood is thicker than water, and when Ben receives Alex’s frantic call he hurries to San Francisco to help him. Only then does Alex reveal that there’s another player who knows of the technology: Sarah Hosseini, a young Iranian American lawyer whom Alex has long secretly desired--and whom Ben immediately distrusts. As these three struggle to identify the forces attempting to silence them, Ben and Alex are forced to examine the events that drove them apart--even as Sarah’s presence, and her own secret yearnings, deepens the fault line between them.

A full-throttle thriller that is both emotionally and politically charged, Fault Line centers on a conspiracy that has spun out of the shadows and onto the streets of America, a conspiracy that can be stopped by only three people--three people with different worldviews, different grievances, different motives. To survive the forces arrayed against them, they’ll first have to survive one another.

My Thoughts: What a page turner this thriller is and right from the very beginning ! I read the book in a day, not being able to put it down. I got so engrossed in the story line and the well defined characters that the pages just flew by. There were some moments I was holding my breath for fear of what would happen next.

It's not all intrigue and conspiracy either. There is a nice balance of family relationships in the mix. That's where the great characterizations stem from.Both brothers are so well fleshed out, it is almost hard to believe they are fictional. The peripheral characters; not as much but they are still good. It's very easy to see how they think and feel and their emotional growth throughout the story. Ben is probably the character I would most like to see in another story. He is the typical macho type but seems to have a heart, although maybe it is buried unders layers of tough guy. By the end of the story, he has progressed the most emotionally.

Eisler does a fantastic job of setting up the scenarios in the well paced and believeable plot. Highly recommended for those who like a little mystery, intrigue and conspiracy plots. This one really delivers without any faults! 5*****
About the Author: After graduating from Cornell Law School, Barry Eisler spent three years in a covert position with the CIA's Directorate of Operations, then worked as a technology lawyer and startup executive in Silicon Valley and Japan, earning his black belt at the Kodokan International Judo Center. Eisler's thrillers have won the Barry Award and the Gumshoe Award for Best Thriller of the Year, have been included in numerous "Best Of" lists, and have been translated into nearly twenty languages. The first book in Eisler's assassin John Rain series, Rain Fall, has been made into a movie starring Gary Oldman that was released by Sony Pictures in April 2009. For more information about the author or his work, please visit http://www.barryeisler.com/

A big thank you to Tracee at Pump Up Your Book Promotions and Random House for a copy of this excellent story.