Book Review: Shooting Gallery by Ben Coes

I’m a huge spy-thriller fan, and I’ve been meaning to read the Dewey Andreas series by Ben Coes for a while now.

I know that a new book is being released later this year with the title Bloody Sunday, so I got all the previous books, loaded them on my iPad and took them with me on my holidays abroad to read.

Currently, the latest published book is a short novella titled Shooting Gallery, with Bloody Sunday to be published next month in July.

Now, Shooting Gallery is just a short story, but it’s just as action-packed as the author’s other books in the Dewey Andreas series.

Here, the story focuses on a kidnap and hostage situation. The new Vice President’s son and his friend have gone to Mexico, initially, under supervision by the Secret Service. However, they managed to lose their tails and disappeared.

Or so they thought. Because soon after landing, they were picked up by fake FBI agents and taken hostage for quite a huge ransom.

Generally, the US doesn’t negotiate with terrorists and it doesn’t pay ransom fees. But unofficially, it does. Especially when someone as prominent like the son of someone in the White House is kidnapped.

Enter Dewey, who was already in Mexico when the kidnapping happened. Of course, with his unique set of skills, he is the perfect candidate for the rescue mission.

Because one thing is clear. Even if the ransom money is paid, the two guys will more likely be killed. And Dewey can’t let that happen.

Of course, it’s even better that Dewey is with his two closest friends, Tacoma and Katie, on a private job. Tacoma and Katie were also at one time operatives, however, money spoke to them and now they’re working as private contractors, only doing a couple of jobs here and there for the government (mostly involving Dewey as well).

So the trio does what they do best: work together to save the day once again.

The story is extremely short, and, of course, there is not much character progression here. Although, there is a bit more about Hector Calibrisi and the new vice president, which slightly advances their complex relationship. I’m looking forward to see if they manage to settle their issues in the new book.

Since the story is short, the plot wraps up quite fast, and before we know it, it’s all over. I bet Dewey wished all his assignments went down as fast and easy as this one.

One thing I enjoyed in this book is that it also includes a few chapters from the new full-length novel to come out next month. The book preview is almost as long as the novella itself.

I’ve read it with interest, especially since the new novel is very relevant to what is going on in the American and international politics today, particularly involving North Korea and their nukes.

While the short story was fun to read, the beginning of the new book was what really kept my attention throughout. I already have the book on preorder and will download it on my Kindle as soon as it’s released.