“Families of Spies”, the second book by Brian Landers to feature Thomas and Julia Dylan, is a European spy thriller set in the 1970s, told as Thomas’ recollections from some time in the future.

As hinted in the title, this book has as much to do with families as it does with espionage. Father and son spies, husband and wife agents working for her uncle, aunts and nieces, in-laws, and (being mostly set in Italy) mafia families.

The main story concerns the disappearance of Julia’s aunt and her husband while boating from Greece to Sicily. Thomas and Julia are honeymooning in Europe, so Julia’s uncle (the head of their intelligence agency) asks them to look into this disappearance of his sister.

Thomas and Julia start their investigation in Greece, with the Iranian brother-in-law who feels persecuted by the Shah’s regime, who has little to share. The story moves to Italy, Sicily in particular, for most of the book.

And there the cast of characters expands at an alarming rate – one has to pay attention! English agents, CIA spies, American soldiers, different branches of the Italian police, Russian spies, communists, a dead Iranian journalist, and the mafia all blend together. Mr. Landers takes us on a long path, with history, geography, and tangents aplenty before wrapping everything together. Along the way there are murders, missing people, and hidden motives.

This is a complex, dense book, which at times can be interesting but unfortunately it can also distract. The tangents get annoying, and sometimes the meandering path is so long that we lose interest before we get to the end. But my main disappointment is the lack of action in the book – with rare exceptions, the action all takes place off stage. What we end up with is the discussions, the interrogations, the weaving of theories over coffee and drinks. There is more conversation in this book than anything else, which makes one long for some brainless action once in a while.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from RedDoor Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

I found this book at first interesting and I wanted to find out to a missing Aunt and her husband
But as the story progresses, it takes on many tandems and it got very confusing at some points that I had to re read it.
I didn't find I connected with the characters, and I admit I've given up at half way, as I wasn't interested in finding out what happened. It was very tedious.

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for ARC

Families of Spies involves the aunt of Julia Dylan disappearing after boating to Sicily. She is the sister of Julia's uncle, the head of Defense Intelligence in London. Julia has just married Thomas Dylan, a colleague, and they abandon their honeymoon for a trip to Syracuse, Sicily. There they find a cast of characters, both police and spies, communists and mafioso. The author then leads us on a meandering path to find out what happened. This is not without interest, but numerous tangents make the story tedious at times. We are given a history of Sicilian food, Italian and Sicilian history, and lots of geography. Perhaps that's all necessary to the story. I didn't think so. The ultimate reveal of the plot is the most interesting part of the novel, thus worth the effort to get there.
Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.

Another great book in the series.
This book took me a few pages to get into, more because of all the names and titles and trying to keep it all straight. So glad I kept reading.
Julia's aunt has disappeared while traveling in Italy. Her uncle is asking for help from other agencies to try to find her. Unwilling to sit by and do nothing, Julia and Thomas leave their honeymoon to help in the search.
Simultaneously, a journalist has been murdered, and the investigation into his death may very well lead the two cases to be connected, but how and why?
This is a great story about unravelling mysteries that may go back many years. Love the characters and look forward to the next book in the series.
I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.