Stuff I Read: Relentless by Jonathan Maberry

Joe Ledger and Rogue Team International are back in a new pulse-pounding adventure! After suffering a tremendous loss at the hands of a shadowy organization, Joe Ledger seemingly goes off the deep end. Joe and his highly trained combat dog are intent on going to Hell and dragging everyone involved in his family’s murder with him, proving that the only thing more dangerous than Joe is a Joe who does not care. Meanwhile, the criminal organization Kuga is beta-testing a terrifying cadre of enhanced super-soldiers and are willing to unleash them on the world at the behest of the highest bidder. Just another Tuesday in the lives of your favorite freelance counter-terrorist operatives in Jonathan Maberry’s latest, Relentless.

WARNING. MILD SPOILERS AHEAD.

Relentless: A Joe Ledger and Rogue Team International Novel by Jonathan Maberry

Relentless begins several months after the shocking ending of Rage, where (spoiler alert) Rafael Santoro blew up the Ledger family home in Baltimore, killing Joe’s father, brother, sister-in-law, nephew and niece. It also gave Joe and his longtime girlfriend, Junie Flynn, significant physical injury. After the physical scars heal, Joe returns to active duty. But when a mission starts to go sideways, an already psychologically bruised Joe feels compelled to leave mid-mission, abandoning his team. When he resurfaces, Joe is relentlessly hunting and brutally murdering everyone he can connect to Rafael Santoro and his family’s murder. Meanwhile, Rogue Team International investigates the Kuga organization and finds them repurposing the Rage toxin to turn their mercenary soldiers into unstoppable killing machines, and are selling them to dictators who seek to destabilize the global order. Even more chilling is that these Rage-enhanced soldiers are working closely with a thought-dead enemy, resurfaced under a new name. Now RTI must stop these soldiers and the ghost from their past while trying to find their elusive and deadly field leader.

This is the second book in the Joe Ledger rebrand (12th overall), and this is the most connected two stories in this series have been in a long while. Direct sequels, where the events of one case are important and impactful to the next, are few and far between in Joe Ledger books, and it’s cool to display this degree of continuity. Normally the Joe Ledger books talk about the past in a purely referential way (this thing happened a couple of cases ago, and what about that one time with the bioweapon), so to have the previous story be almost required reading is refreshing. This version of Joe is more brutal than ever on his revenge tour, and it’s scary how effective he is both as a spy and a killer. Serious Jason Bourne vibes come off here. Maberry also spends less time directly in Joe’s head with first-person narration than previous iterations. That spreads the spotlight amongst his overworked compatriots. My favorite arc in this novel belongs to Alexander “Toys” Chismer, a reformed terrorist who is asked to step back into his old like to help the team locate and recover Joe. To be blunt, he doesn’t want to do it. He and Joe have a bit of a non-aggression pact but can’t stand each other. But Toys does have a soft spot for Joe’s partner, Junie, and does it for her. Toys’ redemption arc has been ongoing for several books now, and it’s fascinating to see how the character has developed over the last ten years or so.

Of course, this is a Joe Ledger book, so we know how it ends. As brutal and violent as the story can get, the principal characters are protected by some pretty impenetrable plot armor. No matter how dangerous things seem, the series’ stars will walk out, alive and under their own power. They don’t lose, they don’t fail. That kind of reliability almost makes them superhuman.

Maberry has mastered the popcorn novel, and he shows that off in Relentless. If you’re a fan of the author and this series, it follows its formula to a tee, and it’s damn fun to read.

Pros: compelling setup, direct sequel, great villains, and a cool ongoing redemption arc. Fun and quick read.

Cons: It’s a Joe Ledger story, for better or for worse. There’s not a ton of variety here.

Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars.