Countdown (Amy Cornwall #2) (2024)

I didn't particularly connect with the characters this time around. Countdown is the second book in Amy Cornwall series, a military spy thriller by James Patterson and Brendan DuBois. It's been four years since the first book came out thus no continuity for me. After reading other reviews the story has a good ending but I'm going to DNF at 30%.

In another collaborative effort, James Patterson and Brendan DuBois provide readers a suspenseful thriller. Building on the series debut some years ago, the authors bring Amy Cornwall back for a new adventure. Fast-paced and full of action, the reader knows they are in for something that will have pages turning. Patterson and DuBois offer up another gem, helping me to see that this is a collaborative effort well worth my time.

Amy Cornwall is back in action, having left the Army and now with the CIA. While on a mission, Agent Cornwall enjoys her time off the radar. All that is tossed in the bin when a field operation goes south after an informant’s intel proves more troubling than first thought. A terrorist plot is revealed and this leaves Cornwall with only a handful of days to neutralise it, or face disaster. One thing about Amy Cornwall is that she thrives in the face of adversity.

While she is off the grid, Amy’s family remains in New York, oblivious to the issues at hand. Tom Cornwall is back to working as a journalist and following up on some leads to a new story, but what he learns could have dire consequences for many. He wishes that he could reach Amy and share what he’s discovered, but it could put them both in harm’s way.

While Agent Cornwall rushes across Europe to get to the core of the matter, she realises that even she might have a limit to the luck she has in stopping a terror attack inside the borders of America. Still, there is no time like the present to put all her eggs in one basket and hope for the best. It will be a race against time to save her family, as well as many others in New York, Trouble is, she must do all this covertly and without the help of the Agency. Patterson and DuBois work well together and this thriller pulls out all the stops.

Readers who enjoy Patterson novels take a gamble with each book. I have long said that collaborators can make all the difference, and have proven that through a number of recent reviews. Working alongside Brendan DuBois, Patterson helps craft a wonderful novel that builds as it pulls the reader in and does not let up. Amy Cornwall has been through a great deal since her departure from the Army. Her time with the CIA has proven to be just as rocky, but her determination has not waned. With other characters enhancing the story, there is a greatness to the narrative that continues through to the very end, when everything comes together. Patterson and DuBois offer up strong plots to keep the story moving forward effectively and without ceasing. The presented themes are surely not unique to the genre, but some of the approaches proved highly effective to differentiate this novel (and series) from others with like-minded ideas. A great addition to Patterson’s vast library of novels, with much thanks to Brendan DuBois for keeping things on track.

Kudos, Messrs. Patterson and DuBois, for this second novel in the series. While I was not sure we’d see Amy Cornwall again, it was a pleasure once more to find her struggling to stay ahead of the trouble.

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Too long and too improbable. 2 of 10 stars

This was a slow start for me. I considered abandoning it more than once, but the last half picked up and the final quarter was hard to put down.

This book goes from 0 to 80 and keeps the foot on the peddle. It seems the action never stops. Well done and looking forward to #3 if they decide to publish it...

It is no secret that the writing and publishing machine that is James Patterson often includes his combining efforts with other writers. This is the case with his latest release entitled COUNTDOWN, which was co-authored by Brendan DuBois. Though I was familiar with the name, I had not personally read anything from DuBois and was looking forward to this title.

Needless to say, I was not disappointed. At over 450+ pages, this lengthy story is set against both para-military efforts in the Middle East and a plot against the United States that literally has a tight countdown to be foiled lest thousands of innocent people perish. Our primary protagonist is U.S. Military Agent Amy Cornwall. Her strength is operating from behind enemy lines and completing dangerous tasks few would even attempt. At the start of the narrative, she is leading just such an effort with two other colleagues in the mountains of northeastern Lebanon.

The mission is in conjunction with two British agents who are regrettably taken captive by their enemies at the end of the mission. Amy decides to keep her team back, defying her orders, to attempt a rescue of her British compatriots. She is successful in freeing one of them --- Jeremy --- while his partner, Oliver, was beheaded by the terrorists. The leader of this terrorist group and the one who is also responsible for the threat against the U.S. in NYC is a man by the name of Rashad Hussain.

Hussain is not someone to be trifled with and a mere beheading of an enemy is far from the most lethal action he is capable of. While all this is going on, we also see things from the ground zero perspective of Amy’s husband Tom and daughter Denise. Tom is a journalist operating out of World Trade Center Building One and he learns of the potential terrorist attack on his city. His attempts to reach his wife Amy all fall through as her own government has ‘burned’ her due to her defiant actions on her most recent assignment. Amy finds the same roadblock on her end as she cannot even get the local U.S. Consulate to recognize her when she attempts to get a message home.

Amy teams up with Jeremy as they travel to London before ending up in NYC in pursuit of Hussain and his terrorist cell connections that are planning the big attack. With mere days and hours to go before it occurs, the two of them are extremely under the gun to thwart this attack. Making matters that much more difficult for them is the fact that they are working outside of their own government agencies who are in pursuit of them for abandoning their stations in the Middle East after the last operation.

The final third of COUNTDOWN, set on United States soil in NYC, is a real time-bomb of a reading experience. To say that things are tense would be an extreme understatement. What impressed me most about the pairing of Patterson and DuBois was how they were able to keep up the high-octane intensity all the way to the end of this long story without providing a moment for the reader to catch their breath. This is a tribute to Patterson and his master plotting work, and I look forward to his next pairing with Brendan DuBois!

Reviewed by Ray Palen for Book Reporter

Okay, a lot of my regular friends and book readers know that I am not keen on James Patterson "Joint" books, where his co- authors do most of the work, he claims the success and of course the money. But this book and story looked good, well it was quite good, especially the last quarter of the book.

An undercover CIA officer has seven days to save her country from the world's most dangerous double-agent.

The CIA's highly classified Special Activities Division is in the business of tracking people down and keeping secrets hidden. Then a botched field operation reveals some dark dealings between an officer's superiors and an informant, including a plot that could kill thousands of Americans.

Knowing that her leadership is corrupt to the core, intelligence officer Amy Cornwall is forced to give up her identity and work from the shadows. But it's not easy staying hidden when your enemies are elite intelligence operatives from both sides of the Atlantic.

Will she get the truth out into the light before losing her identity, her history, her family?

Personally I found the book a little too long, quite confusing and heavy going for the first half of the book. but Amy's character shines through as a great strong character, and the story finally builds up for an explosive last few chapters, with a few twists and shocks.

One thing that should be mentioned, so many reviews always mention James Patterson, don't forget the main author of the book is the co-author !!

Yes it's great to get their work published, even as a c0-author, more credit most be given to them, as they do most of the work.

Three Stars

This is a good read to skip if you have any alternatives on your reading list. The plot is old, the characters shallow and the story largely unbelievable—in short another in the long line of Patterson conveyer belt novels pushed out solely to make a buck. Those who work in government and the IC tire of seeing the garbage written about our three letter agency colleagues without any basis in fact. I give this book two stars because it kept me awake on my daily bus commute
Otherwise it’d be a no star effort.

This is a very soft 4 due to the ending! This is the second book in the series. Amy is sent overseas to assist her MI6 counterparts but when the op doesn’t go as planned she is blacklisted. Left to swing in the wing.

The descriptive tagline on this book’s cover – “Countdown” – proclaims “She has five days to save the world.” This promo, along with James Patterson’s name is supposed to let you now that this thriller promises to grab your attention. Like last year’s “Blowback”, James and his writing partner for this one, Brendan DuBois, have attempted another summer potboiler that includes a mix of Tom Clancy espionage, the intensity of TV’s “24”, and the layered suspense of David Baldacci.

“Countdown” begins with CIA agent Amy Cornwell leading a field operation with her sniper team in the mountains of northeastern Lebanon. They are being supported by an English MI6 sniper team who is helping them take out targets from the Abu Sayyal terrorist group. Everything seems to go well at first, but then the MI6 team doesn’t make it to the extraction point and get themselves captured.

Amy gets her team out, but goes back to save the MI6 team, led by Jeremy Windsor. Unfortunately, things don’t exactly go well, and only Amy and Jeremy escape alive. That’s when things go from bad to worse. It seems that Jeremy’s team had a second secret mission that Amy was not aware of – to kill Rashad Hussain, a dangerous terrorist who stays in the shadows, but has a horrific act of destruction planned for May 29th in New York.

Jeremy’s MI6 leaders are stating quiet about Jeremy’s secret mission and refuse to respond back to Amy’s CIA leaders. Amy’s boss is absolutely irate to find that out that Amy’s disobeyed her orders, and when discovers that she is helping to hunt down Rashad Hussain, he’s even more angry because Hussain is one of their own informants. Because Amy doesn’t back down, she is removed from her job and completely erased from the Agency.

At the same time, Amy’s husband, Tom and their eleven-year-old daughter are currently living in New York city where Tom is an investigative reporter and taking care of things whenever Amy is off serving n her secret governmental international missions. Tom’s becoming concerned because he notices he’s being watched. It’s the same people, but wearing different outfits and company themed clothes. Then he stops hearing from Amy and when he tries to make contact with her agency, they no longer recognize her existence.

Amy is left to work with Jeremy and their informal resources to try and save her family and New York city with only five days before it’s supposed to happen. Amy finds herself racing from Lebanon to France to England to New York in a race to stop one of the most powerful and life-threatening terrorist plots ever conceived or hundreds of thousands of deaths will just be the beginning of a madman’s vision of the future.

In many ways, this is a typical Patterson/Dubois political thriller delivered with their usual formula plotlines. There’s a lot of dramatic twists, multiple interconnecting storylines, and a larger rather than smaller cast of characters presented in a strong Tom Clancy techno-style delivery. It also has the required level of action, violence, suspense, and mystery expected by us as Patterson readers.

Let’s be honest. Don’t expect it to be realistic. And yes, it’s over-the-top more than a few times. Some the characters are pretty one dimensional, including Amy’s boss, Jeremy’s boss, and even Amy at several points in the story. She is such a stubborn, refuse to obey orders or listen to anyone around her, that I found her more annoying than likeable more times than not. And to make it worse, every time Amy and Jeremy got themselves into serious and deadly situations, they always found (many times unbelievable) ways to get themselves out without having to sacrifice or suffer much physical damage for very long. I was almost starting to think of Amy and Jeremy as almost having super-hero powers. In addition, the bad guys were stereotypical cliched middle eastern jihad driven killers seeking destructive revenge against those who don’t believe in their ways and are willing to sacrifice their lives for it. Seriously?

It's just my personal opinion, but this one felt a bit over-done for my tastes. It followed the formula so much that it became predictable and I lost some of my empathy with the characters and their feeling real. At times, the storylines came across as more clinical than creating any emotional connection, as if the writers were trying to do too much rather than finding a good writing rhythm and creating three-dimensional characters that draw the reader in and feel part of the story.

Now, here’s where I have to be careful and not give away any spoilers, but the last fifteen pages were more than surprising and downright irritating in more ways than one. The authors tried to be John Le’Carre and they came across more like Scott Adams writing a Dilbert office scene. They way overthought themselves out of the game. They were totally unrealistic. And even left two of the biggest plotline climaxes to end off-stage, which was enough to make me scream out loud. In some ways we ended up back at the proverbial beginning, which left me wondering why I even read the dang book. Everything in the last fifteen pages was to set-up the next Amy Cornwell series book. Ugh! Another Ugh! Triple Ugh.

Overall, it comes down to this truth. We don’t read Patterson for realism. We read him for high level thrillers that help us escape our daily grind and enjoy an exciting thriller that makes us forget about all else. This one wasn’t his worst and it certainly wasn’t his best. Basically, it was somewhere in the middle for me, and that is way more generous than I should be. For me, this started off pretty well, then became more formulaic and superficial as it went along, and ended in a literary overblown stink bomb.

Hopefully, you will enjoy it more than I did. 2.5 out of 5 stars (yes Goodreads doesn't round to a half point) and consider it an early Christmas gift.

This was almost a 5 star but was just a bit too long, and just didn’t catch me like the first Amy Cornwall book. It almost seemed like the same plot with her husband and daughter in danger yet again that left me thinking “Didn’t I just read this?”

The plot was decent otherwise and it’s very political/special forces which is different from the usual police procedural that Patterson does which is why I think I enjoyed this.

While dragging on a bit long, the ending was fantastic and does something that Patterson does not do (Finally) in his books, and makes me super excited for another book in this series.

Amy is a great new character and I hope this series continues. 4.5 out of 5

This book was very exciting as Amy Cornwall races to save America from a terrorist, up to the end, which was horrific for Amy. I had to read the last chapters several times to truly understand what had happened. I don't usually have such a visceral reaction to book endings, but this one punched me in the heart. It was very unnecessary and disappointing.

DNF boring for a book supposed to be a thriller.

Do not mess with this woman. It is good she is one of the “good guys” for she would be a formidable enemy. The humor is subtle, the action is never ending and the tragedy is heartbreaking. I finished this novel in the wee hours of the morning. I had only got a fourth of the way into this read when I realized this was not the first in the series. Dummy me!!! I am quickly downloading the prior novel for if it is half as good as this one it will be one heck of a read.

If you liked Amy Cornwall in "The Cornwall's Vanish", you will love this one. Amy is a badass.

The books you receive as gifts often go one of two ways: they’re incredible or mediocre at best. This is the latter. Credit due to James Patterson, he’s a prolific author with I assume many great works. Perhaps he should slow his writing down and focus on true originality.

The book benefitted from a rapid timeline, so reading was smooth sailing. Unfortunately, plot and characters suffered. I admit I did not read Amy Cornwall #1, but I’ll compare to Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six (John Clark #2) since I did not read his first book on the character either. Plot was mostly original: well-funded, connected, egotistical radical plans on crippling the United States and soaking in the global infamy it will create. A bold, headstrong female CIA operator and a thoroughly-networked male SAS operator are on a run-and-gun, globetrotting, underdog mission to stop him. The action was almost tangible for most of the story. It has plot twists along the way, connections between characters that are meant to surprise, but only a few of them delivered. For the most part, it seemed Patterson borrowed twists from other popular franchises, so the “surprises” left me thinking “of course it’s that way” instead of “no WAY!” These overused turns in the plot disrupted the forward motion of the story. It was as if in an attempt to make an incredible turning point, Patterson instead created an un-credible turning point. I can say I was shocked by the ending. It was another mediocre twist, but I admit it was largely unexpected.

The novel’s characters suffered most. With a few exceptions (Tom Cornwall being one), the cast were static. They were the way they were because that’s how they were - no explanation, no history, no apparent reason why. Most characters seemed to have a specific stereotype that defined them and their extreme behaviors without explanation. Amy was intuitive and stubborn as a mule (literally kicking everyone, allies included, to exert authority); the SAS operator was a copy-paste of Captain Price from the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series; the shadowy antagonist was jihadist Lex Luther; and so on. Worse, the more pre-scripted the character, the less development they received.

Ultimately, I read the book to finish the book. The action was just enough to keep me reading through every session, though the stereotypes and bland plot points made it difficult to stay invested. It struggled throughout with character development and originality.

In another collaboration with Brendan DuBois, Patterson reprises the former Army intelligence officer, Amy Cornwall, who was introduced to us in, "The Cornwalls Are Gone"...In this sequel, Amy Cornwall is now working for the CIA in a Spec Ops role, while trying to maintain some normalcy in her family life...On an operation in the Middle East, she goes rogue in order to rescue some MI6 members of her team, and in doing so exposes a sinister scheme to attack Manhattan, where her loved ones live...She turns into a female version of James Reece, the rogue operator created by James Carr, as the bureaucrats take her "off the books" as punishment, as she attempts to thwart the attack...Fast-paced and full of action hard to put down thriller...Good Stuff!!!

uhm soooooooo i didnt know this had a first book (i thought it was a standalone) so yeah

The story was interesting and action-packed .. I just didn't really care for the main characters' persona.

The story in this second installment picks up about a year after the story in the first installment. In reality though, this book comes four years after the first installment. The book summary basically lays out the premise. Amy, now a CIA agent, and an MI6 agent are tracking down a terrorist in Lebanon. The MI6 agent believes the terrorist is planning to bomb either Paris or NYC in a few days. The CIA don’t want Amy going after the terrorist because he’s on the CIA payroll.

I’m not a fan of international, espionage, spy thrillers. This is not what the first installment led to. I can’t believe I waited four years for this. I should have paid more attention to the book summary. I DNFed it at around the 25% mark. Enough said!

This wasn’t the book I thought it would be.
I almost stopped reading it, but I pursued on.
It was interesting with very short chapters.
I believe this is the second book of a series, but I didn’t read the first one. It can be read as a stand alone, too.
I won’t be reading anymore books of this series.

After rating the first Amy Cornwall book 5 stars, I expected this to be off the scale. Sadly, it's not. Everything that made the first book amazing was lacking in this book, even down to our main character, Amy. She didn't feel well-created, or three dimensional, in this book until maybe the last fifty pages or so. And that was a big let down.

What we do have is a bit of a thrill ride, with action packed to the rafters. Give the authors 2 ticks for that. Unfortunately, the way this is written didn't drag me into the story, so those scenes felt flat. I was an observer rather than being transported into the action. And that's what I wanted from this, because the first book did just that.

Is the action overdone? I'd say quite possibly and lean towards yes. Even accounting for adrenaline, I'd expect Amy to pass out from exhaustion at any moment in the book. And that's before she goes into full superhero mode, where I felt I was reading a script for the next Mission Impossible movie. It's a bit over the top, as many action thriller are, but I was exhausted for the Amy after reading this!

The conclusion has one purpose. To setup a third book in the series. I really hope the next book is better, and something tells me it will be.

Last thought:
Do you know what's starting to irritate me a little about a lot of thrillers? The villain is given an odd quirk, just because the author thinks that makes them more human. More believable. It really doesn't. Some villains suit quirks. Some don't. And the villain in this book doesn't suit his quirks.

In Countdown, James Patterson and Brendan DuBois created a suspenseful thriller with high stakes, a secret identity and a race against time.

When a field operation goes wrong, Agent Amy Cornwall makes important decisions that will affect the safety of her family and that of the world. A lot can happen in seven days, especially when you need to prove your identity. While traveling to Europe under a secret identity, Amy races against time, but this adventure is far from smooth. Enemies lurk around every corner and no one can be trusted.

I'm keeping this review spoiler free, but all I can say is this author duo did an amazing job! Once again I was captivated by the thrill and the mystery, and the short chapters almost felt like a countdown. With each chapter, I couldn't read fast enough and was surprised by how quickly I finished the book. I always feel like Patterson's books have the potential for TV series adaptations, and this one in particular would be bingeworthy.

Get your passport ready and travel with Agent Amy Cornwall and prepare to save the world from a dangerous double agent.

Thank you to Penguin Random House SA for a gifted copy in exchange for an honest review. Review coming soon.

2nd in series. In this newest men-are-useless-women-are-everything novel, female CIA agent Amy Cornwall teams up with a trusted male MI6 counterpart to stop a terrorist plot. The story bumps along fairly well, with lots of twists and action. If you suspend disbelief as much as needed for every recent novel with this disdain for men, it becomes about a 3 star read.

Warning: Detatch yourself emotionally as you near the ending

Not the best, not the worst. I didn't care for Amy's "I 'm in charge " attitude at the beginning of the book. Then, it became unrealistic in everyone's tracking abilities. But worst of all was the senseless killing of her husband and daughter.

Poorly written, predictable storyline, very corny and lots of fluff. This book could have easily been 100 pages shorter. It’s hard to buy in when right out of the gate an experienced military veteran refers to enemy hostiles as “ bad guys”. Also the white mountains are in New Hampshire not Maine.

Shame on you James Patterson terrible ending

This was a did not finish. Got bored and gave up about 150 pages in.

I just couldn’t-slow and miserable so I finally admitted it and cut my losses for the time I spent trying to get into this book that I will never get back.

Heartbreakingly Realistic Military Thriller

I have not read a book this engrossing or terrifyingly realistic since Tom Clancy’s first blockbuster novels. The plot is complex, the characters are well-developed and the entire scenario is scary. A terrorist plots to kill hundreds of thousands in Manhattan and the only people standing in his way are a rogue CIA agent and an equally rogue MI6 agent. Together, Amy and Jeremy make one united force to be reckoned with. The pace is fast and the action is riveting. Could not put this book down!
Disclaimer:
Disclosure of Material Connection: I checked out a copy of this book from my local library. All opinions expressed are my own.