Vital Lies

Sentro, Book 2

By: Daniel Pyne

Narrated by: Christina Traister

From the author of spy thriller Water Memory comes a riveting installment in the Sentro series in which past and present collide.

When a Canadian spy comes to ex-black ops specialist Aubrey Sentro for help tracking down notorious Cold War spymaster Günter Witt, she wants to say no. It’s been thirty years since Aubrey’s captivity in East Berlin, and she has no desire to return. Her focus now is on mending the relationships that suffered during her years working in the shadows.

But when a ruthless mercenary targets Aubrey and her daughter, the game changes. With Witt back on the scene, blackmailing his old contacts and contracting with rogue governments, the stakes are high. And Aubrey, who endured the brunt of Witt’s cruelty in that old Stasi prison, may be the only one who can track him down.

To unravel the threads of Witt’s intricate web of lies, Aubrey will need to confront not only the dark secrets of her past but also the threat they pose to her future.

©2022 Daniel Pyne. (P)2021 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“Narrator Christina Traister skillfully presents the many voices and accents necessary to make the story come alive. Listeners of spy thrillers will enjoy this book.”—Library Journal

“In [the] outstanding sequel to 2021’s Water Memory…Pyne keeps the pages racing by. This gripping cinematic thriller will leave readers transfixed.”—Publishers Weekly

“A sadly effective dramatization of the comic-strip Pogo‘s insight: ‘We have met the enemy, and he is us.’”—Kirkus Reviews

sentro's sequel takes on communist ideals

in this follow-up novel, Aubrey Centro is far more vulnerable due to significant memory loss as a result of her lifelong career in spy games. now with her daughter Emory regular fixture in her life, and then a part of the game, she struggles to remember her first mission in East Germany before the Berlin Wall came down. a global adventure and some very difficult to follow storyline details result in some new truths that she had forgotten .

I didn't love the beginning of this novel for the narration, but adapted and found it fine after a bit. as someone who vividly remembers when the Berlin Wall came down, I realized that I probably have very little historical knowledge outside of that experience. sadly, that just made parts of the story very hard to follow. The more personal aspects of the story, things that happened with Centro during her torture, the romances, and the details of the Cuban woman aka Mercedes kept my interest when I was otherwise lost. I can't imagine that there would be a third text, because Audrey's mind has gotten so broken. but I'm glad I read both of these, because I always love a strong female protagonist especially one who is complicated and still trying to make the right choice

Enough Alliteration Already!

I don’t usually bother with a written review but felt the need to vent here. I read the first book in this series and enjoyed it. But this one was all over the place and pretty difficult to follow. The plot shifted without warning and the heavy alliteration throughout the story line only just made the over-the-top, flowery descriptions of every day character interactions bearable. This book had potential but lost its way pretty quick.

Too many… ugh

Honestly I stopped listening… too many F words for my liking. When you have 15 in a matter of 3 minutes it’s too much