Dan Mayland

Mark Sava likes his life in Baku, Azerbaijan. Well, his presentation about “Russian influence in Azerbaijan in the 1920s” let some of the listeners nod off, and right now he has to teach young and lazy Heydar English vocabulary, but nevertheless, the retired CIA station chief Mark likes to live in Baku. Until the English lesson is stopped by someone shooting at him.
Overnight Mark becomes persona non grata and gets thrown out of the country by the Government. To make things even worse, his apartment is ransacked and the manuscript of his nearly finished book is stolen, together with all the backup copies.
When he receives a mail with mysterious photos from his friend, the former Navy Seal John Decker, Mark suspects that Decker is held captive. To help him rescue Decker, Mark tracks down the Iranian-American Daria Buckingham, a former CIA agent.
Together they take huge risks to find Decker, who in the meantime gets tortured. Can a two-people-army really get him out?
This is the second book of a series, but can be read as a stand-alone. I only sometimes had the impression that I should know more of the protagonist´s past, to understand the situation fully.
It took me some time to get into the story and to figure out what it all is about. So far to me this book was only a standard action novel. But then a few scenes at the White House are thrown in, and it becomes clear what is going on. From that point on the story gripped me. It is plausible and full of action.
I really appreciated the setting of the book. This is a region that so far has not been too often used by thriller authors, and obviously Dan Mayland has a profound knowledge about the political and social backgrounds.
So, altogether I enjoyed this printed popcorn-movie and wait for a sequel.