A Grave Breach
by James Macomber
Published by Oceanview Publishing
Click on book
cover to order
at Amazon.com
Reviewed by Maria Elmvang
What is the gravest breach? Is it a breach of national security? A breach of peace? A breach of contract? Or a breach of confidentiality, of trust?
That is one of the things that James Macomber explores in his third John Cann book and newest novel, A Grave Breach.
John Cann would never have agreed to defend a war criminal in a court of law, especially not after seeing the atrocities he performed during the Balkan war, if it hadn’t been for one thing: Arthur Matsen – his boss and a man whom he respects and loves as his own father – asked him to. Forced to find the blurred boundaries between his trust in Matsen and his own impression of his client, Cann travels to Europe and tries to get to the bottom of things and find out why Matsen asked him to take on this case.
Meanwhile, back in the USA Cann’s colleague Katherine Price discovers that all is not as it ought to be at the facilities where Cann’s ward, Janie is staying. When it is discovered that Janie is subjected to dangerous psychiatric experiments, only a desperate action will protect her.
Giving away any more of the plot would be a shame for others. James Macomber managed to keep me at the edge of my seat through the various twists and turns of the book until its final conclusion. Unfortunately by combining two unrelated plotlines, Macomber sometimes neglects one in favour of the other, and not all threads are properly tied up, leaving me with unresolved issues and burning questions.
It is an advantage, but not a necessity, to have read the two first John Cann books before reading A Grave Breach. I hadn’t, but as all references to earlier books are well explained, it allows it to stand on its own without any problems.
Armchair Interviews says: An excellent suspense novel that definitely will leave you wanting to read more of Macomber’s work.