Reviewed by Becca
TITLE: The Start of a Beautiful Friendship
SERIES: Spy vs. Spook #.5
AUTHOR: Tinnean
PUBLISHER: self-published
LENGTH: 53 pages
RELEASE DATE: August 23, 2019
BLURB:
It’s 1996, and Mark Vincent, senior special agent of the Washington Bureau of Investigation and Security, is sent on assignment to Prague to cancel the head of a terrorist organization. He has no doubt it will be a simple operation. After all, he’s the best, isn’t he?
Only another member of the WBIS gets involved, and when everything goes south—including the loss of valued members of his team—Mark vows to destroy the man responsible for this debacle.
Refused permission to return to the States and ordered to take time off to decompress, Mark heads to Paris, where he meets an attractive rent boy who introduces himself as Louis. Unable to resist, Mark, portraying an ordinary businessman, gives his name as Rick, and they spend the week together. However, neither man is what he portrays himself as. With this unlikely pair, can this be the start of a beautiful friendship?
REVIEW:
I can tell you right now that I am going to LOVE this series. This story is so good. It’s a short one and short on plot, with lots of passion involved, but the plot is coming off as dang good. I can’t wait to dig into the rest of this series.
Mark was supposed to go on an op to take out an evil man, when a snowstorm delayed him. By the time he got to where he was supposed to be, two of his comrades were murdered and two of his others were hanging on by a thread. And the moron that was supposed to be in charge was blubbering that it wasn’t his fault, when it so clearly was. And he fouled it up bad. And Mark was going to make him and the ‘Archbishop’ pay for what they’ve done. But before he could do anything, he was ordered to take time off from the job. And begrudgingly, he does. The only thing that makes it worthwhile is ‘Louis’. But when their time comes to an end, Mark finds out Louis is not who he says he is and that could be dangerous.
I did not blame Mark a bit for his anger. If he would have just been left to do what he was supposed to do, with no idiots interfering, everything would have been fine. But no, he had to follow the boss’s orders and he was mad about it. I don’t blame him a bit. I also suspect something more shady is going on on that front. It was a little too convenient and suspect to me. The way the ‘Boss’ was acting. There’s more going on behind the scenes. And with ‘Louis’, even though Mark knows who he is now, with the phone calls he’s been getting as well, something sure smells fishy. And I’m ready to see what is going to happen next and how Mark is going to handle it. Because from the word on the street, Mark is not a man to be trifled with.
RATING: 
BUY LINK:
Thank you so much for your kind words. Pete, aka “Louis” shows up in other Spy vs. Spook books, and I thought it would be fun to see the start of their friendship. (Sperling really was a moron, wasn’t he? 😉 )
Girl, I was so like Mark and wanted to kill ole Spal myself. He was an idiot. But after reading this it makes me so excited to read the rest of the series. It was the perfect set up with the plot and the chemistry and everything. It’s just…perfect. I am so anxious to see where this leads!