Desmond Aloysius Limerick is a former mercenary enjoying retirement in Southern California and his current guitar gig. While staying overnight at a hotel, instincts from his former career kick in and he notices a trained and armed team enter the hotel, possibly after the remarkable woman he encountered in the elevator earlier that night. Dez can’t ignore the danger and wants to help rescue the woman. The Gatekeeper by James Byrne follows Dez on a whirlwind adventure as he puts his impressive skill-set to good use and helps uncover a massive crime years in the making, and much bigger than he or the state of California. 

Petra Alexandris is the chief legal counsel at Triton Expeditors, a major military contractor. Her father Constantine is the CEO. Dez successfully stops the group of armed men from kidnapping her, and she slowly trusts him more and more after that. She also realizes that the attempted kidnapping is connected to her snooping around for the 1.3 billion dollars that inexplicably went missing from Triton’s accounts. What follows throughout The Gatekeeper involves Dez, Petra, and local law enforcement searching for answers and connecting the dots. What they find, however, is a massive plot to initiate a coup, involving white supremacists, far-right media moguls, military personnel, and a group of survivalists at a ranch located near a nuclear power plant. 

To be honest, I found Dez to be quite annoying at first. We don’t get much of his backstory other than the prologue where he is on a mission that takes place six months prior to the events of the book. Byrne introduces his skills as the titular nickname The Gatekeeper – because he can figure out how to access any facility, no matter how protected. His quips initially gave me the impression that Byrne was trying too hard to make Dez a unique character. However, as I progressed through the story, Dez grew on me.

The quips continued, as well as his unbelievable ability to thwart any opposition he comes across (even trained military personnel). But we also see his empathetic side, demonstrated while dealing with Neo-Nazis and looking out for others, as well as his respect for talented and honorable people. Overall, his personality didn’t stop me from enjoying the ride. In fact, after speaking with Byrne about his process, I understand that he absolutely had to make Dez unique in order to stand out in the genre.  

The Gatekeeper is paced well – Byrne develops an action-packed thriller that keeps readers on their toes, with a few slow points that do well to further the plot. I also greatly appreciated the short chapters, which made it easy to zoom right through. Fair warning that the story is very anti-right-wing politics, so it might easily offend readers who are die-hard supporters of a particular former president. Nevertheless, readers who enjoy suspense thrillers, strong female characters, witty dialogue, and entertaining action sequences will definitely want to pick this one up. 

James Byrne joins our list of guests for a Cantina Conversation where we discuss his professional background, experience in publishing his first novel, and plans for future projects. Stay tuned for an upcoming episode of The Nerd Cantina Show podcast and pre-order The Gatekeeper, available June 7.