3.5 stars.

While checking to see if Mr. Farnsworth had posted any updates on his newest book for the Nathaniel Cade series, I found this instead. A former CIA agent-turned-private contractor who can read minds? Tell me more!

(Sidebar: I have always felt that mind reading would be a far more annoying ability than a useful one for the ordinary person. John calls it "audible smog", which seems apropos.)

Our main character is named John Smith, so it's almost as if he were born for this kind of life. He's an orphan, a former ward of the state with a string of abusive foster homes throughout his childhood. I'm starting to think that there's not a single character in action-adventure books that doesn't have a Tragic Past, so he's not special there, either.

Overall, an enjoyable afternoon's reading. The prose had a conversational tone and I found the way Farnsworth used technology metaphors to describe mental discipline (firewall) and automatic responses (subroutines) to be appropriately blatant, considering the plot.

Whenever John mentioned his CIA training or missions, all I could imagine was the title card to The Men Who Stare At Goats: "More of this is true than you would believe." #conspiracyhat