Latest Books The Big Thrill Recommends: THE SPY WHO HATED ME by Haris Orkin

The Big Thrill Recommends: THE SPY WHO HATED ME by Haris Orkin

Recommended by Susana Kuehne

In this espionage thriller by game writer and creative director Haris Orkin, the reader is introduced to a quirky but highly talented individual who claims he’s part of the British secret service. The only problem? He’s stuck in a mental hospital.

James Flynn has been diagnosed with a delusional disorder, so most of what he says is actively dismissed as fiction. While Flynn’s imaginative stories paint a fast-paced adventure for all the other patients in the facility, it’s not that simple to see where the lines of reality blur. His doctor finally hits a boiling point with Flynn’s antics—after he catches his wife entangled with the strange fellow. To keep Flynn in check, he puts in an order to restrict the storyteller’s privileges and recommends a transfer.

Too bad for this doctor that Flynn has friends in and out of the hospital and is able to escape for an international flight before anything is processed. Since the skilled spy is there voluntarily, he can do as he pleases anyway. And right now, he’s focused on one single goal: to rescue his former romantic interest and CIA agent, Caitlyn Valentine. Flynn’s almost certain she’s in danger and that her identity has been compromised, all because she isn’t returning his calls. His mission leads him to London, where a Russian billionaire is plotting an evil destruction of cyber networks all over the world.

Time is ticking.

Along the way, Flynn meets other interesting characters who either want to help or derail him. But when all is said and done, no one can deny that his strength, acrobatic flexibility, irresistible charm, keen intuition, clever thinking, and wild determination make him a force to be reckoned with.

An entertaining recipe for disaster, this book reads like a deft combination of James Bond and Ocean 11 movies. Orkin has done a fabulous job pacing the plot so it can be visualized as an action film, where the distinction between hero and villain depends on the character’s ulterior motives for attaching themselves to Flynn’s journey.

Even those who aren’t typically drawn to this type of thriller will find themselves laughing and rooting for a man who may be crazy in love—or plain crazy.

The Big Thrill Recommends: THE SPY WHO HATED ME by Haris Orkin