Global terrorism, mafias and one woman running from her personal struggles to try and make a difference form this twisting action thriller. While struggling to conceive, faced almost daily by reports of another terrorist attack after losing her childhood friend, and not in the frontline journalist role she wanted out of her career Seattle reporter Teagan Penn is eager to do something that will have a positive impact. Her side project to find meaning, an unauthorised international rescue operation for women in a foreign country, puts her in contact with the fixer Roman. However, what started as a desperate urge to make a real difference in the world lands Teagan somewhere she didn’t foresee, fighting to keep herself and her family alive. The pacing and structure of ‘The New Bad Thing’ by Michael Ebner keeps you on your toes, first jumping from a siege at a hotel in Paris to the planning of Project Rebound and Teagan's early encounters with Roman. Then the perspectives shift between Teagan, her husband Todd and the European Counterterrorism agent, Robert Lexington. As the story unfolded and more of Teagan’s past was revealed I realised she may be better equipped to deal with her situation than I first thought. Her determination to protect her family drives her to do whatever it takes. This twisting thriller held my interest right until the end and left me wondering what might come next. I think that ‘The New Bad Thing’ would be a good recommendation for fans of action, thrillers and espionage.
In a luxury Parisian hotel, a Seattle reporter, Teagan Penn, wakes up alone on the ninth floor to the sound of gunfire. She quickly phones a man somewhere in North America who is not her husband. How she entered the inner circle of the elusive Roman is only the beginning... Teagan's 'aha moment' to start her side project was not a product of divine intervention, but a result of her exposure to news stories and national tragedies and her current personal situation: failure to conceive; the loss of a friend to terrorists; not working in the crusader-type journalism arena she once aspired to–where she could have made a real difference in the world. All of this was compounding at her lowest moment to trigger her idea to start a project to help others: an unauthorised international rescue mission for women in a foreign country that she could manage safely from Seattle. As a renowned interviewer in the entertainment industry, she had heard of the fixer, Roman. For her secret project to become a reality she requires somebody with his unique skillset. After tracking him down, she discovers Roman is an egomaniac and more interested in the revered celebrity reporter writing his autobiography under a pseudonym. She agrees to his project as a means for him to support her quest. But she's not the only one seeking Roman... After terrorists randomly attack her Parisian hotel, like other survivors from the siege, she is taken to a local police station. Routine questioning turns to intense interrogation by an American–a European Counterterrorism agent–Robert Lexington. She is the only one who has seen Roman in the last ten years. Teagan is persuaded by Lexington to help locate him–a high priority person of interest–and in return she will avoid the courts and military prison back home. But Lexington is a broken man; an absent husband and father–trapped in his own terrible European nightmare connected to Roman. What follows is a challenging personal journey for Teagan across Europe and America. She must draw on her experience as a skilled interviewer, improviser and investigator to find the ghost-like Roman for her family's survival.
