by Hai Shunxi

Created on: June 10, 2010

A mysterious organization called "Rubaco Pentad" taunts and haunts the FBI in The Bricklayer, the first novel from Noah Boyd. Because of the group's apparent inside knowledge of the Bureau, beleaguered FBI brass are convinced that the Pentad is ex- (or, worse, current) FBI. "Boyd" (a pseudonym for ex-agent turned novelist Paul Lindsay) has inside knowledge of his own, having spent two decades inside the Bureau on some high-profile cases – including the Green River Killer, according to his bio. That knowledge lends a touch of authenticity to Boyd's novel, but The Bricklayer needs more than just some authenticity to be a contender.

The Rubaco Pentad is blackmailing the FBI. After two murders where notes signed by the Pentad were left at the scene, the “group” has demanded that the Bureau fork over two million, cash. If they don't get the money, someone else will die - and the bill will rise by a million. When the delivery man is murdered and the Pentad raises the ante, the top brass - the director and the assistant directors in his orbit - decide to bring in an outsider. The candidate? Ex-agent turned self-employed mason Steve Vail; who'd quit before he could be fired a few years ago  (something about challenging authority).

 For reasons unstated, Vail accepts the request - it might have something to do with the messenger. Or her legs. Deputy Assistant Director Kate Bannon is the FBI's answer to Kate Beckett: young and hot. Though the FBI brass are convinced that an agent assigned to deliver the second ransom (three million this time) is part of the Pentad, Vail's not so sure. He spends three hundred pages thinking outside the box with Bannon trailing along, while the mysterious mastermind of the Pentad somehow manages to stay just a step ahead of the Bureau's finest manhunters. What the bad guy doesn't seem to realize is that Steve Vail is like the RCMP: he always gets his man.

 There will be Rambo-like action as Vail evades the Pentad's traps, plenty of blood, a great deal of pent-up sexual desire, and a final plot twist that even the Russian judges give a zero...

 The Bricklayer may be "Noah Boyd's" debut novel, but Lindsay has published five previous novels (Traps, Freedom to Kill) featuring iconoclastic FBI agents under his real name. Why the new nom de plume for his latest isn't readily apparent. That Boyd is (or was) an insider is crystal clear; and that he's none too fond of the bureaucracy of the FBI is (if possible)

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