The Bottom Line: Grilling Martinis: A Dirty Spy Thriller, delivers on the double entendre in the subtitle. This thriller burns as hot in the field as it does between the sheets. Highly recommended for readers who enjoy the intrigue and action of a thriller combined with high-octane sex scenes.
The second book in Alexi Venice’s Hank Hart series begins as the heroic attorney visits her family’s lake cabin in Wisconsin, only to discover her father, Bob Hart, has transformed it into a glass-and-steel fortress. Hank registers that her Bob isn’t just a retired security consultant. He’s either an eccentric or some type of clandestine operative.
In Baking Ice Cubes, the first Hank Hart book, Venice demonstrated Hank’s courtroom and romantic prowess. In Grilling Martinis, Venice thrusts Hank into a shadowy world that she knows nothing about. The fun starts as a routine boat ride to greet one of Bob’s colleagues takes a deadly turn.
What follows is Hank’s immersion into a foreign and duplicitous world that captivates her. Venice takes the reader on a trip through the French Alps then dials up the tension with a mission to stop a scheme to use undocumented immigrants as slave labor to build a missile defense hub on the moon. The action sequences crackle with cinematic detail, from icy lake escapes to mountain adventure to shuttle hijackings, while quieter moments – like Hank and Bob paging through photo albums of her late mother – add emotional ballast.
Layered atop the adrenaline is Hank’s burgeoning romance with Crystal Dimon, an Air Force pilot who is transitioning to the CIA. As usual, Venice demonstrates her flair for crafting eye-popping erotic scenes.
Elsewhere, Gerrit Fetor emerges as the book’s arch-villain. Using his uber wealth and worldwide connections, Fetor is a clever strategist – a man who weaponizes technology, politics, and human lives in equal measure. Hank and her team are tasked with stopping his latest grotesque and audacious scheme. Fueled by subterfuge, the striptease, and deadly tactics, the story moves with the precision and pace of an action thriller.
Along the way, Venice allows Hank Hart to evolve as she confronts who her father really is and considers whether to leave her trial attorney world behind for the opaque world of covert missions. (“Last week, it was the French Alps. This week, it was blue skies over the Gulf. A job with the Agency would take her everywhere, and it would always be filled with mystery, danger, action, and intrigue. Her adrenaline surged at the possibility.”)
The novel’s heart lies in a complicated father-daughter dynamic, where love and obfuscation collide in equal measure, ultimately resulting in Hank’s growth and a deeper appreciation for her father’s career.
