3 out of 4 stars
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The Alter by Joel Knox is a C/T/M/H novel that grips the reader's mind from the first flip of the page with its mind-boggling plot twists. Determined to walk in his father's footsteps, James chooses to be a CIA field agent in order to make his father proud. However, he is disappointed when his career is ended for lack of the necessary field skills. Consequently, James finds himself behind a computer desk for five years in the cyber security department and ends up being skilful at using computers.
One day, James is granted a break from his computer desk to pursue what he loved most, working as a field agent. Apparently, a mole in the CIA is said to be leaking Intel to the Russians rendering the CIA's missions impossible on various battlegrounds and James has to be deployed as the security overwatch.
James watched grotesquely from his new surveillance station in London as the CIA agents were ambushed, shot dead and only one remained. As he walked out to save Elizabeth, he too was shot dead. Extraordinarily, James wakes up the next day and realizes he has another self; a bloodthirsty monster (The Alter) full of vengeance. With the CIA plans crumbled, and the blame placed squarely on him, James finds himself on the run when the CIA decides to hunt him down having conspired that he is the mole.
In this CIA thriller, the author delivers a spellbinding description of events that kept me flipping a page after another to grasp every bit of information. The narrative is woven around romance, conspiracies, disloyalty, and corruption, with different plot settings that see the reader's mind travelling through various cities ecstatically. I liked how the book explains the mystery behind Alters and how the human in whom they inhabit can keep the Alter's powers under control. This allowed me to associate with James, making the whole scene feel like it was real.
The author made sure that the reader would stay at the edge of the seat tracking the story's protagonist (James) as he heroically exposed high ranked corrupt CIA officials responsible for the mess in his life, and those of other CIA agents who possess the same superhuman gift as his. With the simple writing style the author uses, reading the book was made easy and it didn't take me long to finish.
Personally, I felt the book ended on a cliffhanger. Just after Jones was convicted of corruption and illicit blackmail, the novel ended as if there will be a sequel. Moreover, there were a number of grammar errors I came across. For example, the author wrote "why do you keeping saying that," "I thought we were both were, really," "gradually making his was toward the red circle on his map," and the use of "if" instead of "it". Though these errors couldn't deter me from reading, I have to rate this book 3 out of 4 stars since I can't award it 3.5 stars. I recommend the novel to people who love action-packed books; however, the presence of gory scenes may be disturbing to some readers.
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The Alter
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