Review of Devil Among Us
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Review of Devil Among Us
Special agents Lara Edmonds and Uri Levin are back together in Devil Among Us by Jack Winnick. While it’s the second book of a series, it can be read as a standalone. The book begins with the Bar-lev family preparing to attend services at the Orthodox synagogue in Brooklyn, New York. Their excitement to attend the Yom Kippur service is understandable, until we realize their joy is with murderous intent. They detonate bombs during the service and kill over 100 people. Who are the Bar-levs? Are they truly Orthodox Jews? Lara and Uri reunite to uncover the truth.
As for the positive aspects of this book, I do enjoy it when a book provides information that is new to me and does so without being boring or weighed down with extraneous matter. The discussions between political leaders, agents, and others were always riveting. I realized that the line between the good guys and the bad guys is sometimes very thin. While I did wish that there had been more of Lara and Uri working together, it didn’t detract from the interwoven storylines in the book.
As for the negative aspects, there were a few formatting issues which I can only assume was the transition to an e-reader. I did notice some inconsistencies with names. An attorney’s name is spelled Steven several times but then written as Stephen on a different page. Krav Maga was spelled Crav Maga at one point. There were several missing periods at the end of sentences. I don't feel like the book was carefully edited. I also felt there were way too many characters to follow. A few seemed to be very important characters to the storyline but then faded away without mention. The most disappointing part for me was the limited scenes with Lara and Uri. A few times they came together, fought a few bad guys, and then nothing. I did enjoy their fun banter with each other, but those scenes were very rare.
The political and religious history was a fascinating part of this book. The author is well researched and is able to weave this knowledge into a storyline that is never boring. Even though I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, the errors and inconsistencies were enough for me to rate this a bit lower, so I would rate Devil Among Us 3 out of 4 stars.
There is minimal profanity but several of the scenes can be graphic. If you’re interested in a book involving political strategies, espionage, and religious history, this book is for you.
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Devil Among Us
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