Sleeper 13 by Rob Sinclair

 

When Aydin Torkal was nine, his father took him to Afghanistan to be trained to fight the infidels. At the Farm, he and fourteen other young boys were taught to kill. They called him Talatashar, number thirteen.

Now grown, Aydin has been stationed in Paris, one of thirteen militants about to pull off a series of deadly attacks across Europe. He doesn't know all the details; he doesn't even know where his other twelve brothers have been sent. Then his sister, Nilay, who's been searching for him for years, is killed in Syria, and Ayden knows that it had to have been one of his brothers who was order to kill her because she was getting too close to the truth. So he leaves Paris to go in search of the man who murdered his sister.

"...all of the others, they were out there, and Aydin was damn certain they all wanted him dead. They would come for him .... again and again to kill him .... and they would harm anyone who got in their way. If he ran he had no chance. What he needed was to fight back. It was time to use his hatred. It was time to become the hunter."

The other main character in this novel is Rachel Cox, a British SIS agent in MI5. She's been hunting for any information on the thirteen militants for years, but she can't find any real proof of their existence until Aydin, or Talatashar, breaks ranks. His defection just might lead her team to the other twelve in time to stop the deadly attacks. If she can get to him before his brothers do.

Sleeper 13 is an entertaining read with lots of action and suspense. It has a similar vibe to the Jason Bourne movies and the Orphan X books (although it's not quite as good). I liked how strong and determined Rachel was, even when she didn't get any support from her superiors. And Aydin? He's a conflicted yet ultimately sympathetic character. I liked him, too. All in all, this was a fun read. I look forward to checking out the next book in this series.  

Happy reading!