Around Thanksgiving, the fifth Thomas Adam Grey thriller by Duane Laflin, The Medusa Sting, came out. As I’ve been enjoying this series, I quickly got and read it. This series continues to be great, and I look forward to the next ones.
Laflin is a retired professional magician who now writes novels. Wayne Reinagel has done the covers for all books so far, and we get another that is clearly inspired by James Bama‘s Doc Savage covers. And that’s not a bad thing. Each one is different and largely monochromatic. This time, we get an aquatic scene; last issue focused on fire, the prior was Arctic ice, etc.
Thomas Adam Grey is a Secret Service agent tired of protecting corrupt politicians. He has decided to quit and start his own personal-protection business based in Kansas City. Thomas is more than 6 feet tall, with hair halfway between brown and blonde, and gray eyes. He is often compared to a lion in human form. While very capable, he is not invulnerable, so things don’t always go his way.
Assisting him is his secretary and clear love interest, Tiffany Swensen, who runs his office. Over the series, their relationship has been changing. She was more involved in the action with the third novel and is again heavily involved in this one.
Also, unlike other thriller heroes, Thomas doesn’t have others he can call on. His former boss at the Secret Service has only occasionally made an appearance, only via phone, as he does here.
Louie Ford, whom Grey worked with in the last novel, is back, but only appears at the beginning and end of the work, not involved with the action.
We kick off The Medusa Sting with a flashback to World War II. Here we see a German U-boat, filled with stolen artwork, heading to the South Pacific. The plan is to go to Samoa, stopping in the Solomon Islands along the way. The problem is they arrive there during the Battle of Guadalcanal. Hiding in a lagoon near an uninhabited island, the U-boat never makes it to Samoa. So what about the artwork?
We then shift to today and see what Thomas is up to, and find him with Louie Ford. Then we are introduced to our big bad for this adventure, a former Japanese actress who had botched plastic surgery on her face and now lives in seclusion somewhere in the Solomon Islands with a former boxer and a former sumo wrestler as her bodyguards. And she has found herself something new to occupy her time.
Thomas is approached by a businessman and his wife, Clifford Jagger (no relationship to Mick Jagger) and Courtney. Courtney’s brother is a history professor at the nearby university and had recently gone to the Solomon Islands on a quest to find a lost German U-boat that may have stolen artwork. But he hasn’t been heard from in a couple of weeks. So they want to hire Thomas as a bodyguard. After some discussion, not only does Thomas accept, but Tiffany will be going along.
It’s one thing that the Solomon Islands are a bit dangerous. They will basically be the four of them on a boat in a remote area, facing various natural threats such as sharks and saltwater crocodiles. There are also various venomous creatures as well. And it doesn’t help that our main antagonist is crazy and enjoys death games, like pitting Thomas against others.
Adding to the mix is the fact that a recent visitor to the island, there to purchase product made by our former actress, has seen something that will net him millions, and is willing to hire a mercenary crew to get it.
Thus, Thomas and his associates are right in the middle of it all. Can Thomas, with little help from others, extract not only himself, but also Tiffany and his clients? It’s not so much the journey as how they get there. And it’s clear that the relationship between Thomas and Tiffany is developing, so we’ll have to see in future installments where it goes and how it changes the series.
As before, we get a section going over the inspiration for some of the elements of the story, something I’ve come to expect with many techno-thrillers. It’s a nice added touch.
If you aren’t getting this series, you are missing out on a great read. Too many people seem to think that characters like Doc Savage “can’t work” in a modern setting, yet this series goes a long way to show that’s wrong. He is not invulnerable, and he does have to figure out a way to succeed. But he is a moral and upright person who is able to stand up to the evils of our time and be triumphant. We don’t have to have our “modern heroes” all be morally ambiguous.
I don’t know when the next volume will come out. Usually, the author notes this at the end, but didn’t do so here. I believe he does have several planned, and it’s clear he’s taking the two main characters in a certain direction. So I will keep an eye out for the next one, though I don’t expect to see it until well into 2026.
If you liked this one, check out some of the author’s other works. The Carson Gold series seems similar and is even recommended at the end of this volume, as are the Eli Brown books, though I haven’t read them myself.
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