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    Agent X: A Novel
    Agent X: A Novel
    Agent X: A Novel
    Audiobook11 hours

    Agent X: A Novel

    Written by Noah Boyd

    Narrated by John Pruden

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    “Vail is in the mold of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher and Robert Crais’s Joe Pike….This guy has movie written all over him.”
    —Chicago Sun-Times

     

    “Fans of Sam Spade and Jack Reacher will feel right at home with this new tough guy.”
    —Boston Globe

     

    “We have a new American hero in Steve Vail.”

    —Patricia Cornwell

     

    Steve Vail, former discarded covert operative and the FBI’s new go-to guy for the toughest jobs, returns in Agent X—the pulse-pounding follow-up to the explosive New York Times bestselling debut thriller by Noah Boyd, The Bricklayer. A former FBI agent himself, author Boyd pulls out all the stops in Agent X—as “the Bricklayer” hunts down an elusive Russian spy in a taut and authentic thriller that rivals the very best of Brad Thor, Vince Flynn, Stephen Hunter, and Robert Ludlum.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateFeb 8, 2011
    ISBN9780062027276
    Author

    Noah Boyd

    Noah Boyd is a former FBI agent who spent more than twenty years working some of the bureau’s toughest investigations, including the Green River Killer case and the Highland Park Strangler case (which he’s credited with solving). He passed away in 2011.

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    Reviews for Agent X

    3.5/5

    182 ratings50 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I received this book in the Early Reviewers program and had not read the previous book, The Bricklayer, with the same characters. But I had no trouble getting into the characters and situation pretty quick.The author uses witty (sometimes, too witty) dialogue between the characters throughout. It did become a bit too precious at times, but over all, I enjoyed it. The main character is clever in the mode of Lee Child's Jack Reacher. I looked forward to his explanations of his deductions. The book is fast-paced and mostly exciting.
    • 3/5
      Ex-FBI agent and bad boy Steve Vail teams up with former love interest and by-the-book agent Kate Bannon to catch a Russian spy and unmask a string of American moles in this spy thriller. I received this as an early reader copy and haven't read the first Vail novel, the Bricklayer, which also featured these characters. The outcome of the thriller part of the plot was fairly predictable from early on; although I lost track of some of the twists and turns along the way, the structure of the novel made it pretty clear who at least one of the boss bad guys had to be (another seemed thrown in at the end out of the blue, perhaps to offset the obviousness of the other). But, steady action kept the plot moving, with plenty of close calls and heroic saves, which is what I'm looking for in a thriller.The romance side of the plot was less effective. Relentless banter seemed intended to show sexual tension, but it mostly just grated, recalling high school conversations in which boys with raging hormones would say things that crossed far into sexual harassment territory, and girls with low self esteem would alternately play to it and resist. Another reviewer has commented on the way that explicit sex is hidden behind fade-outs; unfortunately, for the most part, the emotionally genuine sides of the characters are too. Or maybe they're just not that deep.
    • 4/5
      Boyd brings us the second installment in the Steve Vail suspense catalog and I sense there are many more to come. Vail, a former FBI agent keeps being pulled back into his past occupation because he appears to be the only man for the job. Having left the special agent business behind because of problems with the management wanting him to do it their way, he seems to be intrinsically linked to any case touched by Kate Bannon.
      Having left the employ of the FBI, Vail has made his living as a bricklayer, and sometime sculptor in Chicago, he finds his background in counterintelligence, coupled with a master’s degree in Soviet history, invaluable to the Bureau in their latest case, brought to them by a man known as Calculus. The offer is to turn over a list of the current spies working with the ranks of government and defense contractors in the States.
      Once Calculus’ cover appears blown and the spies all seem to be getting killed ahead of the FBI getting to them, Bannon and Vail have to put their on and off again relationship on hold to discover who is behind the spy threat.
      When Bannon herself is framed as a spy and jailed, it is up to Vail and a fellow agent Steve Bursaw to fi nd a way to prove her innocence.
      In Boyd’s introduction to this bricklayer agent, we found him to be a sole operator and to provide him with a partner in Bursaw felt off the mark just a little. It did not take away from the urgency the story told, but perhaps humanized Vail a little more than I would have liked. If Boyd really wants Vail to be serious competition with the likes of the Jack Reachers of the novel world, he should stick with his original plan.
      “Agent X” advances the reputation of Boyd as an excellent spy master and this thrill-a-minute story pulls out all stops, just as Vail does.
    • 3/5
      There is no way he can be compared to Joe pike -
    • 5/5
      This fast paced FBI thriller is perfect for anyone who enjoys spy novels. Throw in double agents and Russians and you have a page turner.
    • 4/5
      Steve Vail, the Bricklayer, is just a little too good to be true, but entertaining. He is a crime solving machine. He has come back to Washington, D.C. at the invitation of the FBI Director to work with Kate Bannon, an assistant director at the Bureau. The Russians (???) or their surrogates have attempted to kill Kate and make it look like suicide.A source inside the Russian embassy known as Calculus has offered the FBI the names of several Americans handing over classified inormation to them. Bannon and Vail engage in a campaign to ferret out the accused Americans and to find out if Calculus is a genuine double agent or not.Expect lots of twists and turns in the plot as well as much gunplay and a high body count.
    • 3/5
      Noah does it again! What a fun read! The dialogue, especially between Vail and Kate, is amusing, sometimes hilarious. And, yes, there are twists and turns and, just when you think it's over and nothing else can be said, it twists and turns one last time.
    • 4/5
      Agent X is a continued saga of "The Bricklayer"...a rather unorthodox part time FBI agent and part time bricklayer. Steve Vail, the bricklayer, has no love of doing anything by the book or authority. He does what needs to be done, and gets results...much to the dismay of the criminals in his path, many of whom end up dead! Kate Bannon is Vail's on again, off again love interest. Also and FBI agent, she is more by the book and Vail's methods keep a barrier between them. It is a well written novel and I look forward to more similar stories in the future. I'd recommend this novel to anyone interested in crime, action-thrillers genre.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoy the Steve Vain stories, however, I felt that this one was a little all over the place, plot-wise.
    • 3/5
      The basic plot could again be guessed early on. Nevertheless fun to read.
    • 3/5
      Since I haven't read Boyd's first novel I can't compare the two. I enjoyed the ease of the read in this novel and that it wasn't crammed with romance. Just enough to make the book interesting. The characters are intriguing but I would like to have gotten into Vail's head more. To know more about him, the insight about his father and what he did to Steve's work was more of what I would like to see. Perhaps there is more to learn of Vail in his first novel. I will have to get it to find out. I would recommend this book to anyone for an easy, fast read but for the sitting on the edge of your seat kind of thing, it didn't do it for me.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book and have ordered the Bricklayer. Although I do not typically read novels in the spy/intrigue genre, this story captured my interest from the begiining to the end. I loved the complexity of the two main characters and how each one's personality differences complemented the other's. An exciting and fast-paced read!
    • 2/5
      Make no mistake, this is not a good book. What it is, is a prime example of what you have when you have interesting characters but no real plot and stilted dialog. I managed to finish this book because I liked the characters and found myself interested in what happen to them. However, the convoluted nonsensical plot about Russian spy rings outsourcing to Lithuanians nearly lost me several times. Also couldn't figure out if the two main characters were getting together or not. The only thing worse then the plot was the dialog. Just when I'd gotten past the plot and was interested in the character, boom! Here comes a piece of wooden dialog. The best thing about this book is that it made me appreciate the writings of Danial Silva even more.
    • 3/5
      I got this book through the Early Reviewer program, but it's taken me a while to actually review it. That's because I decided to go back and read "The Bricklayer" first. I'm not normally a fan of this genre, and it was evidenced by the fact that it took me so long to read both of these books. The situations the characters are in, especially in Agent X, while action-packed, just seem implausible. And the way the get out of said scrapes? Even more so. I gave it three stars because the characters are at least likable, and the writing is decent.
    • 4/5
      The Bricklayer is again called in by the FBI to help solve a sensitive problem. His partner is again Kate Bannon, now promoted to Assistant Director and caught between calling off their on again - off again relationship and needing his expertise to quickly dispatch a counter intelligence problem. Boyd proves again that he can provide a complicated, fast paced read with just that touch of humor and romance to keep things livelier still.
    • 5/5
      This is a very good book. It is about several potential spies within the government. The main characters are a FBI agent and ex-agent. The author has very intriguing plot line on the hunt for the potential spies. The twists and turns in the plot keep you on your toes and wondering how did I miss the clues within the story. The interaction between the two main characters is a good side story within the plot and contributes to some of the twists and turns. If you enjoy thrillers or espionage novels you should enjoy this book.
    • 3/5
      I thoroughly enjoyed this book and have not yet read Bricklayer, Noah Boyd's first book. Through out novel there are several references to activities that must have happened in The Bricklayer, but it does not take away from this story. Noah Boyd has created incredible characters that really come to life. No James Bond perfection here. They are very human and flawed. The story is action packed with a few twists and turns. The ending seems a bit predictable, but you have to read to make sure there was not another twist thrown in!
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this one -- the action was realistic [well, for a thriller] and the characters were well-drawn. I particularly like the (growing) relationship between Steve Vail and Kate Bannon -- it's cute without being cutesy.(I decided to read The Bricklayer before starting this one, and I'm glad I did; it's not impossible to enjoy Agent X without having read The Bricklayer, but I think it helps.)Vail is the troublemaker FBI agent and Bannon is the pretty-much-by-the-rules agent, although Vail has left The Bureau because he doesn't like answering to management ... until Kate's life is in danger, and then he's johnny-on-the-spot. The rest of the book is taken up with double agents [I did see the end coming about ten chapters ahead], fights, dead drops, and all sorts of other good spy stuff.It's a fairly quick read, but I will look for more Noah Boyd books in the future.
    • 5/5
      To fully appreciate this book you should really read book 1 The Bricklayer. That said Agent X starts a few months or so from where book 1 ends. It features Ex-FBI agent Steve Vail who quit, or was fired depending on who's telling it, when he refused to compromise his beliefs. He is now a bricklayer living in Chicago. Kate Bannon, a FBI Assistant Director is also back and working along side of Steve. Its starts with an attempt on Kates life which everyone except Bob Lasker, the Director of the FBI, thinks was a failed suicide attempt. When Steve shows up for a New Years Eve date things start jumping. First they get pulled in, as a favor, on a child abduction case that is quickly solved by Steve. The next day Director Lasker asks Steve to once again sign on to help with a top secret espionage case concerning the Russians. When Steve turns it down Lasker talks to him privately and tells him about the attempt on Kates life. Steve reconsiders and takes the case with the same conditions as the first, that he answers to no one and does things his way. Along the way Steve runs into fellow FBI and friend Luke Bursaw who quickly asks Steve for his help on a case of a missing FBI analyst. As a result Luke gets pulled into helping Steve and Kate. While following the clues the lighthearted banter between everyone is enjoyable, you can picture that they really are friends and have a great relationship, while the action leaves you on the edge of your seat. We also learn a little bit more of what makes Steve tick and what happened to him as a child that makes him somewhat damaged. I love this series and can only see it getting better. There is not a dull spot in this book and the addition of Luke to the cast of characters was a good one. I hope we get to see him back working with Kate and Steve. Can't wait for book 3 to come out and I highly recommend this series.
    • 4/5
      Agent X by Noah Boyd is a fast-paced, entertaining, & enjoyable read. It centers around Kate Bannon, a straight-laced assistant director at the FBI, and Steve Vail, an unorthodox former FBI agent who quit the Bureau in disgust over all the rules and regulations. Steve retired and works as a bricklayer. Opposites attract, and Steve and Kate are drawn to each other despite the fact that they both feel that the relationship is impossible. The two have all but given up on their relationship when someone tries to kill Kate. Steve decides to protect Kate under the guise of joining forces with her to help solve a puzzling case involving spies, double-agents, and intrigue. A quick read, with lots of action and some interesting puzzles.
    • 4/5
      If you like thrillers, spies, double agents and plot twists you'll like Agent X. Steve Vail is a former FBI agent. Now he's a bricklayer. Kate Bannon is the assistant director of the FBI. The two have a strained romantic history but Steve is willing to work on their relationship. Steve still has all his skills. He's going to need them to keep himself and Kate alive. An attempt on Kate's life is made to look like a suicide. Her career is threatened. An unknown intelligence officer has lead the FBI to believe that some Americans are passing secrets to the Russians, Every clue leads to an attempt on their lives. Even when the FBI lets Steve loose with his unorthodox approach it looks like the only outcome will be failure.
    • 3/5
      This book grabbed me from the beginning and I couldn't stop reading. There were a few parts here and there where I thought the writing was hard to read, but overall the story was great and I loved the ending! I will definitely pick up the next one.
    • 4/5
      Article first published as Book Review: Agent X by Noah Boyd on Blogcritics.Kate Bannon, FBI agent is having one of her worst nightmares ever. She feels like she is dying. As she pries open her eyelids, she realizes there is no dream, only real life. Someone has left her car running and she is breathing in fumes, unable to open her garage, which is jammed, in the back of her mind she realizes that this will look like suicide instead of what it really is. Who is it that is responsible for her murder?In the hospital, Bob Lasker, Director of the FBI is cautiously waiting for her to wake. He has questions only she can answer. Unlike the others, he does not believe the evidence. Kate needs to find out who is after her and why. It is time for her to call Steve Vail for help. Steve has always been at his best in these situations and she has always been able to rely on him. Will he help her this time? Never one to follow the rules he has left the business and is now pursuing his own way as Bricklayer. Growing up in his father’s footsteps, it was what he was groomed for. A rule breaker, not a rule taker, he chose to leave the business.Kate is not sure he will help, and if he does, can she keep him within the guidelines required by her Director? With only one man believing her story, will Vail also understand that she is in danger, not from herself but from others? When Steve agrees to help, digging into the deceit behind her most recent problems, the evidence takes them into the dark and dangerous underground of the spy network. Whom do they trust, in this political game of tag?In Agent X, Noah Boyd has built a layer of deceit that only the best minds could follow. Nevertheless, as each clue is unraveled the bad guys are murdered before they can be debriefed. Steve and his trusty companion Kate follow the trail, to find the deep undercover spy and unmask him, but at each turn, the adversary is ahead of them. While close and having a great respect for the other they both work off differing agendas, neither trusting the other with all their information.Kate believes in Steve, but not all the information adds up when the ousted spy’s die, many at the hands of Steve himself. Is he only in the wrong place at the wrong time as he claims or is he responsible for the deaths? She is vulnerable without the entire backing of her crew. Whom does she believe when the evidence points in varying directions? She is strong and smart, but what is really happening? Can she take a leap of faith and follow her heart, or will she follow the advice and evidence as presented.Steve is secretive and has his own agenda. He is extraordinarily bright when it comes to seeing the big picture, but he struggles with putting his faith in others. He is adept and cocky, going his own way, using the information he garners to flesh out further spies, and information. But who is guiding him with bits and pieces of clues, leading him into fray after fray, only to murder the suspects before they have a chance of digging out the truth. Steve is the quintessential MacGyver with just a bit of Mack Bolen thrown in. Boyd has written a fine, fast paced and intriguing suspense, keeping you guessing. Just who are the bad guys, and will Kate make the right choices?I would recommend this book to those who enjoy fast-paced adventure, set in a spy thriller. Vail is a wonderful character and sure to be one to bring back time after time. The moniker of Bricklayer helps to flesh out his persona, both solid and well-constructed with strength of character. This is an exciting novel with strength of purpose and hard to put down. This is action and adventure at its finest, a thrilling ride.This book was received as a free copy by GoodReads First Reads. All opinions are my own based off my reading and understanding of the material.
    • 2/5
      Although this is fiction, the believability of some of the things these two peeps did, especially figuring out the code was just to much to think it was possible. Disappointed in this book.
    • 4/5
      Agent-X is the second book in a newer series featuring Steve Vail, an ex-FBI agent who prefers to be a bricklayer rather than be "bossed" or "micro-managed" or "managed" at all. He works best alone, not reporting to anyone.This story was fast and fun to read. Many crimes to solve. How many? How many connections? I won't say. You have to read it for yourself.Steve Vail is securely on my Short List of Favorite modern action characters. (Thanks to LibraryThing, which brought my attention to Noah Boyd's books!)
    • 4/5
      Steven Vail is a renegade ex-FBI agent who hates bureaucrats - can you relate? So he takes on special projects as he works as a bricklayer. He has a romantic interest in Kate Banning who is high up in the FBI but the two can't get their relationship on the right path. Steve works on two main cases simultaneously in this book and both make his character and the story very exciting and suspenseful. i liked Steve's character. He does what a lot of us want to do - do our job without interference. But sometimes that can get you in trouble. This is an easy to read book and one that you don't mind going back to the next day. I really enjoyed it and recommend it.
    • 4/5
      Noah Boyd’s life makes up for a remarkably authentic background for this book. His own life was a former FBI agent and his character of Steve Vail, aka Bricklayer was derived from his father’s occupation. As I did not read his first book, this is my thought of where Bricklayer came from. He was a disenchanted FBI agent and rules got in his way of doing his job effectively. Therefore, Steve Vail becomes a nomad with the skill of an officer of the law but none of the stops. Despite this, it does stand on its own without having read the first book.Kate Banning starts the story as someone who knows something or has something someone wants. The first pages get you hooked. You do not have to wait until page 100 to get into this story. The story moved up, down, and sideways. When you think that is it, something else pops up to grab your attention.The book is very readable. , Even though Steve is a superman hero, his has Clark Kent’s romantic skills with Kate and as a result the romance falls flat in the story.The cover is quite eye catching and would make a great Mark Valley movie!
    • 4/5
      This is an exciting spy novel! Fast paced, with lots of twists to keep you confused! Steve Vail, bricklayer and Kate Bannon, FBI agent are estranged lovers brought together by no choice of their own... but despite their personal conflict work together to unravel a complex trail of spies and counterspies! This is the author's second book, so I will have to read his first one [The Bricklayer} before his 3rd one comes out! Highly recommended!
    • 3/5
      Not having read The Bricklayer, I was somewhat intrigued by the jacket blurb and bubbling praise for Agent X. The premise wasn’t particularly original (ex-FBI agent is called back to help on a special case), but in the hands of a new author I was hoping for a fresh take on the idea.Unfortunately, Agent X really failed as a sophomore novel in a number of areas and the quality of the overall story suffered greatly as a result. The author, Noah Boyd, is an ex-FBI agent himself, but he wasn’t able to capture any of the real life details you would expect with a writer who has that experience.The plot is an over-the-top spy mystery with so many (very unlikely) plot twists and dead bodies that by the end I just wanted the story to be over. While I can suspend belief for a rip-roaring action story, this one just did not measure up. The book opens with Steve Vail, the main character, solving a kidnapping while seemingly on a coffee break. A few keen insights and he is able to solve the crime and capture the kidnapper in a dozen pages. This was a prelude to how the rest of the book unfolds with Vail jumping frenetically from scene to scene.Boyd manages to wrap some interesting puzzles into the narrative, but these can’t carry the storyline.The problems with this book really fall into three areas: dialogue, characters and plot – which doesn’t leave much. The dialogue is this novel is frankly horrendous. Every other line sounds like adolescent banter and it never lets up. The sexual innuendo and double entendres get very old and had me cringing in so many places.The characters were forgettable and very one dimensional for most of the book. The “relationship” between Vail and Kate Bannon was stiff and unnatural and felt forced into the story. Vail himself is portrayed not only as always being the smartest guy in the room, but the ONLY smart guy in the room.As far as the twisting plot, there were just far too many times when the action didn’t make any sense. Boyd may be able to develop a better writing style in future books, but the action scenes here were dry and unexciting. As mentioned earlier, there are plenty of books like this on the market and many of them are better. I would not recommend this book for the experienced reader as it will leave you disappointed.
    • 4/5
      My apologize for taking so long to review this book.Took it on vacation and it was missed placed.Then the other book came and could not put it down.By then I had this one and I"m so glad I found it....Its a roller coaster ride with the twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the end,and when you find out who Agent X is and the reason behind it all...well...would say more...but don't want to gave anything away...WELL WORTH YOUR TIME...