I’m going to start off this review by saying how much I appreciate thriller writers who actually have “thrills” in their thriller novels.
I won’t mince words — I want action in the thriller novels I read.
This is especially true in today’s macho breed of political thrillers — stories featuring heroes who eat granite for breakfast, and are willing to risk life and limb to defend what is right.
When it comes to action, Matthew Betley is a writer who likes to yank the story into gear, punch the accelerator in his narrative, and make the reader swerve through the pages at breakneck speed.
I reviewed Betley’s two previous Logan West thrillers on this blog in 2018.
(Read my reviews of Betley’s “Overwatch” and “Oath of Honor”).
Betley and I are roughly the same age. As such, I would imagine we grew up consuming the same tough-guy action movies — starring actors like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger — that boys of our generation loved during their middle and high school years.
(I remember vividly when my mom took me to see “Rambo: First Blood Part II” at a local multiplex when I was in sixth grade — a pretty terrific day for a 12-year-old kid).
More to the point, Betley actually slips in a reference to Schwarzenegger’s movie “Predator” on page 330 of his latest novel “Field of Valor.”
In “Field of Valor,” former Force Recon Marine Logan West is back in action. Along for the ride is Force Recon buddy John Quick, former CIA operative Cole Matthews, and mysterious former LEGION operator Amira Cerone. Together, the quartet makes up a special FBI task force known as “Ares.”
(Task Force Ares is roughly the political thriller equivalent of Marvel’s “The Avengers”).
In the previous outing for “Team West,” the objective was to stop a weapon known as ONERING from wreaking havoc in the hands of foreign baddies — a mission that saw our heroes trotting across the globe in its pursuit.
In “Field of Valor,” Task Force Ares has to stop a secret society of foreign policy chess players known as the Organization — a group helping “manage chaos in countries like Colombia, Mexico, and Iraq” with the “backing from dozens of countries” and the sole purpose of bringing “stability and order to the chaos.”
The Organization is led by a man known as the Founder — a wealthy businessman named Constantine Kallas who has spent his life working to right the wrongs he experienced as a child during World War II.
Unfortunately, something has gone wrong within the Organization, and it’s up to our band of heroes to save the day, and stop a foreign policy calamity.
For my money, the best action thrillers are simple stories told well.
Betley structures “Field of Valor” around a number of entertaining action sequences. His strong suit as a writer is action. The action scenes in his novels are well crafted and highly theatrical.
Another Betley fan and I were discussing one of these sequences on Twitter last week. That particular sequence takes place at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center — an annex for the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
In addition to favoring action movies as a kid, I also spent a lot of my free time building model airplanes.
I got a kick out of Betley's heroes participating in all sorts of derring-do in a museum that houses historic aircraft like a SR-71 Blackbird and the Enola Gay — the famous B-29 bomber that was built in Bellevue, NE (about 10 miles from where I live) on the property that houses Offutt Air Force Base (STRATCOM).
I got a kick out of Betley's heroes participating in all sorts of derring-do in a museum that houses historic aircraft like a SR-71 Blackbird and the Enola Gay — the famous B-29 bomber that was built in Bellevue, NE (about 10 miles from where I live) on the property that houses Offutt Air Force Base (STRATCOM).
That sequence — along with some other high-octane set pieces — makes "Field of Valor" an enjoyable ride. I appreciate the fact that Betley is willing to craft meaty action scenes on the pages of his novels that feel like they jumped off the big screen.
That isn’t an easy feat.
There are a number of thriller writers who avoid complex action scenes — instead giving readers 345 pages of dialogue with 5 pages of action tacked on at the end. That isn’t nearly enough for me.
In addition to Betley's action sequences, the “tools of the trade” he sprinkles into his thrillers add to the overall authenticity.
“Field of Valor” features weapons like SIG SAUER P229s, Colt M4 Commando rifles, SOG Flash II tanto knives, Force Recon Mark II fighting knives, Glock 22s, FN Five-seveN pistols, and Colt M1911s. We have military vehicles like the AH-1W SuperCobra attack helicopter woven into the narrative. And, a Logan West novel wouldn’t be complete without mention of his beloved Kimber Tactical II pistol.
Unlike the first two Logan West thrillers, Betley keeps the action in “Field of Valor” centered around the Washington, D.C. area.
I actually thought less globetrotting served the story well. In some cases, the best action scenes are those that take place in normal, everyday locales.
It also felt like more of the action centered around Logan West — making our protagonist feel like a fully-realized action hero in “Field of Valor.”
I enjoy Betley’s novels because subtlety and nuance aren’t his focus. Instead, he likes to “cut to the chase” and infuse his stories with the essence of what made a great action thriller in the 1980s and 1990s.
This passage of dialogue in “Field of Valor” — where Logan West is barking at a bad guy — sums up Betley’s style perfectly:
“Get up. And if you try to run, I swear to God I’m going to break your ****ing knee, and AARP won’t be able to do jacks**t for you. You got me?”
If you like writers in the style of Vince Flynn and Brad Thor, you’ll enjoy Matthew Betley’s series of thrillers. Visit his official site at http://matthewbetley.com.
P.S. — if you want additional insights into Matthew Betley, his “origin story,” and his writing process, take a listen to this episode of “The Author Stories Podcast” with Hank Garner:
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