Any Minute Now: A Novel

Any Minute Now is a new spy thriller novel by Eric Van Lustbader. The book follows two top-secret operatives: Felix Orteño and Greg Whitman, who are down on their luck after their off-the-books black ops mission fails when they are betrayed and one of their own is killed. Now, both Orteño and Whitman are left with emotional distress. However, in the midst of their despair, they meet a mysterious woman named Charlize Daou who convinces the two to reboot their failed program and punish those who betrayed them. What follows is a series of adventures, crosses and double crosses, and betrayals as the characters search for the truth.

Unfortunately, Any Minute Now failed to live up to my expectations. I read Eric Van Lustbader’s books in the past, and they were much better than his latest one. I found the plot to be extremely convoluted with lots of unnecessary details. There were a lot of characters thrown around at random points in the story line, which made it hard to follow. Character development was average to say the best, with nothing outstanding to be seen with the two main characters. In addition, while most of the novel is an espionage thriller, there were elements of science fiction and the supernatural there as well, which didn’t really make the plot realistic.