September is Literacy Month and I read several great books. This week, I review The Gryphon Heist by James Hannibal, a spy mystery worthy of the big screen.

Talia Inger and her classmate and friend Eddie recently left CIA training and are sent overseas to Moldovia on their first mission: to protect US interest in state of the art weapons inventions from a master thief named Lukon.

Talia and Eddie are directed to work with an asset named Adam Tyler. Tyler is a former spy, very intelligent, and extremely wealthy. Talia can’t help but think something is off about him. Meanwhile, Talia becomes fond of the person she is there to protect, Dr. Pavel Ivanov. Pavel is a brilliant scientist whose company Avantec is a weapons provider for the US. His latest invention is being threatened by a notorious thief named Lukon and Talia must protect Pavel and his work.

At the same time, Talia is haunted by her father’s death. He was murdered when she was a child. As the case unfolds, she discovers that Lukon is responsible. But who is he?

In this twisty tale, not everyone is whom they seem. Talia must lean on her instincts and training to learn to trust and to discover the truth. Will she figure it out before Lukon steals the weapon and uses it against the U.S.?

There is a lot of action and rising tension throughout the story. The characters are believable and well developed. The pace of the story flows fast and smooth and I read it in a few days. I could certainly see this as a movie, it has a danger, mystery, and an underdog; it involves spies, scientists, and US security; the cast of characters includes a colorful but dangerous gang of thieves, a mysterious rich CIA asset, a strong female CIA rookie CIA officer and her techy sidekick Eddie; and there are lots of explosions and action scenes.