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There are currently 18 member reviews
for The Bricklayer
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Sarah B. (Streamwood, illinois)
Good, fast read.
This book is action-packed from the first page with many twists and turns along the way. Steve Vail is the main character who like Macguyver can escape from any situation, and James Bond in that he has no regard for rules to get done what needs to be done. The book is easy to follow, and a fast read.
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Emily W. (Portand, OR)
The Bricklayer
This book appeals to those readers who enjoy seeing the big bosses thwarted when they insist on staying on the beaten path.
Steve Vail is a delight to watch as he skillfully outmaneuvers
his FBI supervisors. The clarity of the presentation of the plot is a
plus. Although the reader is kept in mystery, the path is a
good one to follow. Good for high school and public libraries.
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Janice M. (Holland, MI)
The Bricklayer
A new action character has arrived on the scene: Steve Vail - James Bond and MacGyver rolled into one. The story moves along quickly with lots of twists and turns in the plot (sometimes it gets a little difficult to keep up). One thing that bothered me was the frequent use of acronyms (ASAC. AUSA, OPR, AG, UC - you get the idea). An appendix explaining the meaning of them would be helpful. Other than that, it was an enjoyable read.
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Amy M. (Brooklyn, NY)
Review of The Bricklayer
Noah Boyd's The Bricklayer begins fast-paced and exciting with a unique plot, combining intrigue with hair-raising adventures and graphic violence. FBI agents are dying, the Agency is being extorted for millions and high-profile individuals are being killed. Steve Vail, a bricklayer and former FBI Agent is recruited, to stop the criminals, by Agent Kate Bannon. Vail was known as an agent loathe to follow the rules and dismissive of FBI policy, but who knew how to track down the bad guys. Vail works quickly and is soon on the killers' trail. But the dialogue between Vail and Bannon is, primarily, sexual innuendo and suggestiveness which grows tiring as the story stagnates three-quarters of the way through. Tacked on plot twists seem formulaic and forced in an attempt to revive the story's former pace. Ultimately, it doesn't work and one is left feeling that the book should have ended sooner. Aside from Steve Vail, Boyd's intelligent, arrogant protagonist and Kate Bannon, the attractive, smart but insecure Agent, the characters are one-dimensional, flat and forgettable with the focus on the action. Perhaps if they had been more fleshed out, the last quarter of the book would have played out more realistically without a reliance on contrived plot twists. Ultimately, Steve Vail is an exciting new character whom fans can anticipate reading more about in future books from this series. My hope is that with experience, Noah Boyd will soon weave a tale that remains as riveting to the end as most, but not all, of The Bricklayer.
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