Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

A really good intelligent thriller. Reminded me of "The Cartel" by Don Winslow. Thoughtful and sensitive.

"She did know Colombia, because she knew Iraq and Afghanistan. That this was an extension of the same war, not the endless war on ‘terror’ but something vague, something harder to pin down and related to the demands of America’s not quite empire which was always projecting military power across the globe and just shifting the rationale of why. that Cold War communist guerrillas became War on Drugs narcoguerrillas became War on Terror narcoterrorists. That you keep seeing the same policies or strategies or even people bouncing around the globe."

"Maybe she had something to say about Colombia that wasn’t about knowing the people or the culture but about knowing the systems applying violence across the globe."

I loved Phil Klay’s first book but something about this book didn’t connect. The Graham Greene sense of internationalness didn’t resonate with me but I’m sure it will with others. Not really my bag.

Highly intelligent in its geo-political analysis and knowledgeable about the realities of modern combat, this is nevertheless quite baggy as a novel. Moving between Iraq, Afghanistan and the drug wars in Colombia, it can be hard-hitting and horrific but also quite loose in the number of PoV characters. Overall, it offers interesting commentaries on the explosion of private contractors in the US military and on the systematic use of technology that is also part of capitalism's circulation of power.

This strikes me as a very adult book where others tackling similar topics may be emotional and soap-y (i.e. Columbiana), or boy's own adventures - this is neither. At the same time, it's quite hard to summarise in a pithy way and there were times where I really wasn't sure where it was going or how the various strands related to each other. Smart, sharp, perhaps a bit more diffuse than I'd have liked.