Books & Literature

Book Review: The Consequence of Loyalty, by Trey Stone

Three FBI agents race against the clock to solve a murder mystery behind a shooting before someone else gets hurt.

The Consequence of Loyalty is a fast-paced, thriller with all the trappings of an excellent crime novel.

Written by Trey Stone, the book follows FBI agents Jordan Geer, Dana Norman and Gerard Martin as they race against the clock to solve the mystery behind a shooting before someone else gets hurt. With belligerent Internal Affairs agents at every corner, it will take some expert negotiating, some excellent psychology skills and good old detective work to figure this situation out. Murder, mayhem and a baffling mystery is the premise that Stone gives us, and murder, mayhem and mystery is what the audience shall get.

Stone has set the pace brilliantly with this piece – it can be flustering trying to keep up with the action, but there was a sense of panic that came through that served to only heighten the emotions of the story. The level of technical detail was refreshing, as was Stone’s ability to describe a smooth action scene without stopping and starting. Whilst some characterisation clichés are used in place of more character depth, they serve the book well by enabling a speeding up of the scene setting in such a short novel. It is in this way we come to better understand Greer, Norman and Martin without having to delve into complex backstories.

A criticism would be the lack of editing that has perhaps occurred. There were a couple of typos in the ebook that, whilst easily ignored, goes against everything I’ve been taught as an editor. Formatting as an ebook is problematic in some places, with paragraphs not spaced correctly and a general lack of finesse that appears to get lost when authors publish ebooks. There was no physical copy to compare with, so alas I cannot confirm if it is a digital-only issue with the novel.

Overall, Stone has hit the nail on the head with The Consequence of Loyalty. If you’re looking for an adult-only, quick summer mystery, then this novel should make your ‘to read’ list. Complex and interesting, you’ll be turning the pages as quickly as you can read them, just to see how it ends.

Reviewed by Zoe Butler
Twitter: @Zoe_Rambles

Rating out of 10: 7

Distributed by: Amazon Australia
Released: May 2017
RRP: $19.73

More News

To Top