#Review - A Killer’s Game by Isabella Maldonado #Thriller #Suspense

Series: Daniela Vega #1
Format: Kindle, 368 pages
Release Date: June 1, 2023
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Genre: Mystery / Suspense

An FBI agent with a background in cryptography. A brilliant game maker bent on revenge. A deadly battle of wits and wills. An ingenious thriller from the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Cipher.

FBI agent and former military codebreaker Daniela “Dani” Vega witnesses a murder on a Manhattan sidewalk. The victim is chief of staff for a powerful New York senator. The assassin turned informant is Gustavo Toro. His code: hit the target and don’t ask questions. When Dani suspects a complex conspiracy, the only way to take down the mastermind is from the inside, forcing her to partner with Toro. Together they must infiltrate the inner circle at a remote facility.

Except it’s a trap. For all of them.

Locked in a subterranean labyrinth and held captive by an unseen host, Dani, Toro, and others must fight for their lives. Now Dani must stay undercover, unravel a bizarre conspiracy, and survive lethal puzzles. But will Toro be friend or foe? Because in this killer’s game, everything is real: the paranoia, the desperation, and the body count. And only one person can make it out alive.

A Killer's Game, by Isabella Maldonado, is the first installment in the author's Daniela Vega series. FBI Special Agent Daniela Vega works as part of the New York Counter-terrorism Division in New York City. As a former US Army Ranger, she's had elite military training in pattern recognition, crypto analysis, and counterintelligence. On the way to work, Dani witnesses a murder right out in the open. The victim is chief of staff for a powerful New York senator. 

After a brief chase, it turns out that the assassin is a man named Gustavo Toro. His code: hit the target and don’t ask questions. When Dani suspects a complex conspiracy, the only way to take down the mastermind is from the inside, forcing her to partner with Toro. Toro works for a man named Xavier Treadway who just happens to be a retired Colonel. Treadway doesn't exactly trust people, and the next thing you know, Dani, Toro, and others are flying secretly to an unknown location after losing all communication with Dani's boss.

When Dani and the 12 arrive, they learn they are in an underground bunker, and they are about to play the deadliest game they've ever faced because of the machinations of a brilliant game designer with revenge on their mind. Held captive by an unseen host, Dani must fight for her life while trusting Toro not to kill her first. Dani somehow managed to find herself right in the middle of a plot that has been in the works for years. 

A revenge plot to ensure that nobody remains alive. Dani, who is brilliant when it comes to solving difficult games, must stay undercover, unravel a bizarre conspiracy, and survive lethal puzzles. Things between Dani and Toro get even more complicated when “the Nemesis” (the wacko who created the competition and has been sabotaging the players survival) outs Dani as an FBI agent and places a million-dollar bounty on her head. This killer’s game, everything is real: the paranoia, the desperation, and the body count. And only one person can make it out alive. 

This is one of those thrillers that pulls you in and keeps you focused until the final pages. Dani is a strong, intelligent, competent, and yet vulnerable main character who joined the military because of her father who she looked up to. All the secondary characters were believable, from her siblings to her FBI colleagues. As Dani is struggling to survive, her boss and others like Detective Flint, and her brilliant younger brother, are doing whatever they can to find her. This story had me on the edge of my seat wondering what else was coming my way. I am looking forward to the next book in the series to see what's next for Dani and her siblings.

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