This is the debut novel of Noah Boyd, 
Steve Vail is a former FBI agent who has some serious issues with authority and didn’t fit well in the huge bureaucratic machinery that the FBI is. So he got fired and started laying bricks in Chicago – an honest trade, no bosses.
However, one Friday afternoon he goes to the bank and finds himself taken hostage by two desperate bank robbers. And ends up doing something he is quite good at – he foils the robbery by hurling the robbers through the bank’s windows.
Even though he sneaks away afterwards, he catches the attention of the FBI. As it turns out, the FBI is being blackmailed in a case where prominent people are being killed in a systematic fashion, and where someone inside the FBI seems to be involved. So the FBI is in need of exactly the kind of talent Steve Vail represents – a trained investigator, a man of action, and a guy that can follow a trail.
Thus FBI Deputy Assistant Director Kate Bannon turns up and makes Vail an offer. The FBI needs him, and will even let him be his own boss and name his compensation. But as Vail says: “There is always a boss. … The trick is to never take a job you can’t walk away from. Especially when the bosses get to be insufferable, which I think is now a federal law.”
The investigation Vail gets himself into in The Bricklayer is complex, and Vail and Bannon follow a convoluted trail full of dangerous traps in pursuit of a terrorist group. Often the lone wolf Steve Vail – who isn’t all that concerned with legal boundaries – completely outshines the FBI and aggravates the powers that be in the organization.
There is lots of intelligent action in this book, and the plot is smart too. There are times when the solutions to the various problems facing Vail present themselves in a slightly too convenient fashion, but overall this is a great debut novel. In my opinion both the author and the characters in this book, especially Steve Vail who really is an enjoyable and smart guy, hold great promise!
I found The Bricklayer to be very entertaining and quite suspenseful. I read it very quickly, which to me is always a good sign. The story is fun and nonstop. I recommend it!
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