Reviewed by Grant Leishman for Readers' Favorite

The Man in the Burgundy Jacket by J. Jones is an espionage thriller that carries readers along on a roller-coaster ride of action, adventure, and nefarious bad guys, with even a little romance thrown in. Randy Sullivan and his brother grew up in the foster system and were both heading for a life of petty crime before an elderly gentleman rescued them and taught them values and concern for humanity that carried them into adult life. Randy had followed in his brother’s footsteps, rescuing people from dangerous situations in Middle Eastern countries and getting them to safety and freedom. After his brother was killed on a mission, Randy was struggling to come to terms with life without his best friend. When he is recruited for what seems like a simple follow-and-report mission in Bolivia, little does he realize that the scenario he and his new lady friend, Jill, are walking into has the possibility of changing the world’s energy needs forever. The development of synthetic lithium has the potential to change how we view energy requirements. However, those involved in its development are determined to do whatever it takes so that their new product is the only viable source of energy in the future, making themselves immensely rich and powerful in the process.

The Man in the Burgundy Jacket is seat-of-the-pants reading as the two heroes rush all over South America and England attempting to thwart what simply amounts to nuclear terrorism and threatens to derail most of the world’s source of lithium for the foreseeable future. Author J. Jones has created two characters, Randy and Jill, who have what it takes to defeat these villains but it is their budding attraction that steals the show for readers and for Randy himself, who finds himself making uncharacteristic mistakes during the mission. While Randy is an ongoing character in the author’s series to date, I greatly appreciated the parts that dealt with Randy and his brother Robbie’s upbringing in the foster system. I enjoyed the author delving into their teenage years. The tentative romantic relationship between Randy and Jill was fun reading and created an element of “will they/won’t they” which added to the drama of the action-adventure. The cleverly constructed plot twists and turns with the two heroes regularly finding themselves in difficult situations from which they must escape to continue the mission. The action is non-stop and will appeal to all adrenaline junkies, who will get their fix in this story. As this is part of an ongoing series, I look forward to the continuing adventures of RL (Randy). I can highly recommend this book.