Book Review — Departure

Departure, by Joseph Reid, the third book in the Seth Walker series, is a non-stop thrill ride.  That sounds like a cliché, I know.  I wracked my brains to come up with an original way to say “non-stop thrill ride” and came up short.  What can I say?  That’s what Departure is: a non-stop thrill ride.  Honestly, it was exhausting to read.

Taking place mainly in the San Francisco airport over the course of about a day, Walker must locate a missing tech worker who is suspected of being a terrorist.  Tracing his steps through the airport, trying to second guess his motivations and moves, Walker encounters fires, gunplay, covert activity, and high-tech hijinks.  Interspersed with these scenes is a lot of backstory.  Alluded to in the first two books, we learn a lot about not only how Walker got to be where he is but why and what motivates him.  This makes the book a lot more psychologically complex than the first two, while somehow not managing to slow down the action one whit. 

I swear.  Sometimes you just have to put down the book just to catch your breath. 

There is a lot of technology described in the book in great detail, but you don’t have to be a geek to understand it.  I’m not and I did.  I have no idea how legit the technology is – Joe says its generally for realsies, and I’ll just have to believe him.  He may as well be talking about Star Wars technology for all I understand it.  I’m here to tell you, though, as a non-tech person that you don’t need to be one to like the book or to think the tech in it is cool. 

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The book just came out on August 11, 2020.  I was fortunate to get an advanced reader’s copy because I’m cool like that.  But you can get yours by clicking here: https://amzn.to/3gD8GZu