I seldom run two reviews of the same book back-to-back, but I thought you’d enjoy reading Kevin Tipple’s review of John Sandford’s Dark Angel. Kevin and I had similar reactions to the book, but I know we take different directions in writing reviews. Thank you, Kevin.

Dark Angel

Officially Letty Davenport is still an investigator for the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security. However, her real boss is Senator Christopher Colles, Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. After a few months of letting everything settle down after her last situation (The Investigator: A Letty Davenport Novel), he has a new mission for her in Dark Angel: A Letty Davenport Novel.

The National Security Agency would like her to infiltrate a hacker group known as “Ordinary People.”

The group recently took control over the entire Russian train system and had control for months. For weeks they moved freight and equipment wherever and whenever as they wanted with the Russians powerless to stop it or take back any sense of control. As their final act, they completely shut the system down for days about a year before Russia invaded Ukraine. The Russians eventually paid a lot of money for them to release their control of the system.  

According to two NSA agents, based on chatter and other unspecified sources they will not reveal, the group might be planning to turn the gas off in a northern city. Winter is here and temperatures are way below freezing in a lot of cities of the United States. If the natural gas supply to a city was cut off, many people would die.

The NSA plan is to send Letty and one of their computer people out to California to work undercover. They are to try to meet folks who are in the group. There are some vague leads that they can pursue and once out there and undercover, the NSA agents hope that Letty and their computer guy can obtain more solid leads into the people and what they are planning to do. It is going to take some work, but their computer expert can talk the talk. They need Letty for her gun skills and to keep him safe.

Letty knows from the start the NSA folks are playing spook and therefore not telling her everything. Before long, things get complicated and violently messy. Which is pretty much the way Letty likes it. Not that her undercover partner shares her enthusiasm for guns, blood, and bullets.

Dark Angel: A Letty Davenport Novel by John Sandford is a complicated thriller and one that develops the Letty character a little more from the first book. She is given a hobby and an outlet that fits her to a T while also allowing her to publicly show off her skills. At the same time, the mission is complicated and constantly gets more complicated. Because of the peril of working undercover, she reveals more of herself to others as the story unfolds.

The result is a fun fast moving read that makes Dark Angel: A Letty Davenport Novel by John Sandford well worth your time. Because the events of The Investigator: A Letty Davenport Novel are thoroughly detailed and discussed, it would be best to read that book before reading the new book.

My reading copy was an ARC from NetGalley in advance of the April 11, 2023 publication date.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2023