Description: "Patricia Cornwell highly recommended this thriller to me and she was right on. The Bricklayer has terrific pace, surprises galore, and snappy dialogue in the appropriate places. Even better, it has a real hero. Move over Jack Reacher, here comes The Bricklayer ." - James Patterson "Non-stop action and non-stop authenticity make this a real winner." - Lee Child "Thrilling.... Depending on who''s judging, Vail is a cool maverick with his own moral compass or a dangerously loose cannon. Fans of Sam Spade and Jack Reacher will feel right at home with this new tough guy." - Boston Globe "There''s a new hero on the bookshelf. Imagine Lee Child''s Jack Reacher as a disgruntled ex-FBI agent who makes ends meet by laying bricks.... Steve Vail is a terrific new addition to the crime shift with a Sherlock Holmes perspective mixed with killer elite.... But what really sells The Bricklayer is Boyd''s inside perspective. The bureaucratic posturing, the under-appreciated heroes and the mind-set of evil are razor sharp in Boyd''s unflinching prose.... You''ll want to slide The Bricklayer in alongside Lee Child''s Jack Reacher series." - The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS) "Readers will root for the tough, intelligent Vail while savoring the sexual tension between him and his FBI handler.... This fast-paced thriller includes many authentic-seeming details about the Bureau''s bureaucracy." - Booklist "It''s a good, fast-paced story.... Great action. Great writing. Great story." - San Jose Mercury News "Get in on the crack debut of a compelling new character.... This fictional detective thinks as intricately as a modern Sherlock Holmes.... Boyd, the author who might have lived some of Vail''s adventures, creates consistent tension and dialogue.... Don''t miss it, nor the purported sequels to come. Grade: A." - Cleveland Plain Dealer "Even mediocre thrillers provide entertainment and escapism. But the best come with a healthy dose of authenticity that draws readers quickly and inexorably into the story. Such is Noah Boyd''s novel, The Bricklayer .... If you think you can resist, just read the opening sentence.... Boyd, a former FBI agent with 20-plus years of experience, invests The Bricklayer with an insider''s knowledge of his subject. His prose is spare, his dialogue witty and his characters drawn from life. Foremost among them, of course, is Vail himself -- a brilliant investigator who combines intuition with legwork, a man of solid principles who''s also partial to some judicious illegality -- and an unapologetic loner. He''s the perfect protagonist for Boyd''s superb plotting, a maze of misdirection that takes the reader from plush D.C. offices to L.A.''s dark side and induces serial gasps. But even as the pressure rises, you''ll also find yourself smiling at Boyd''s sly humor, such as the name of the hotel where Vail finds a kidnapping victim, and the banter and sexual tension between Vail and Kate Bannon, the bureau''s deputy assistant administrator. With a fine combination of cynicism and heroism, The Bricklayer is taut and twisty -- and powerfully addictive. Boyd has established himself as a potential master of the genre." - Richmond Times-Dispatch "A blistering debut.... [The] cat-and-mouse game between Vail and the Pentad''s chief [has] enough jolts to create a legion of fans.... Irresistible red meat for connoisseurs of action thrillers." - Kirkus Reviews " The Bricklayer is lots of fun, plenty smart, and great escapist reading. And Steve Vail is a magical FBI agent. If I had my way, I''d read stuff like this every minute I''m not on deadline." - Seymour Hersh "A standout procedural thriller." - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review "Vail is in the mold of Lee Child''s Jack Reacher and Robert Crais''s Joe Pike, though more playful than either one.... The reader is treated to some of the snazziest, smartest, and often surprising dialogue likely to show this or any season.... Vail is fun to watch as he outthinks everyone else in the room, no matter the room.... That there will be more Bricklayer tales is unquestioned. This guy has movie written all over him." - Chicago Sun-Times

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