I am looking for a few beta readers to give me their overall impression on the quality of the novel, related to the characters, the plot, and in particular to the plot twist. Time frame for a response would be 4 weeks. The blurb would be as follows.

He hunted a killer. But the lies hunted him.

When Matt Cavallo was ten, a car bomb killed his stepfather and the wife of Sicilian kingpin Antonio Moretti. The authorities called it an accident. Matt knew better. The truth pointed to Moretti’s revenge for an alleged affair—and Matt has carried that certainty for over fifteen years.

Now the CIA hands him the perfect cover for retribution: an off-the-books mission to infiltrate Moretti’s global fentanyl empire. His way in is Sofia Moretti—brilliant, conflicted, and desperate to escape her father’s shadow. The closer Matt gets, the harder it becomes to turn her into the weapon he needs.

As he pushes deeper into the family network, the narrative he has lived by begins to fracture. Answers contradict assumptions. Motives realign. And the path to the truth leads somewhere far more devastating than the vengeance he thought he wanted.

Perfect for fans of David Baldacci, Tom Wood, and Daniel Silva, Revenge Doesn’t Sleep is a relentless, emotionally charged thriller where every truth has a price—and the past is never what it seems.

Chapter 1

 

The jungle held its breath, as if the trees understood violence was coming. The insects fell silent, their usual chorus replaced by the expectant hush that preceded bloodshed. Matt Cavallo crouched motionless in the dense Mexican undergrowth, his MP7 submachine gun molded to his shoulder like an extension of his skeleton. The scar along his collarbone—a souvenir from Kandahar—pulled tight against his skin with its familiar ache. It always did before an operation like some twister foreshadowing trouble. Bad omen or muscle memory, he couldn't pin it down.

Scout's Arkansas drawl carried across the encrypted channel, unhurried, as if discussing the weather rather than confirming kills. "Outer perimeter clear. Two tangos down."

Matt checked his G-Shock: 23:42. Eighteen minutes until the guard rotation would discover the bodies. Through his night vision goggles, the compound glowed ethereal green—concrete walls thrown up in hast, guard towers built on paranoia. Inside those walls waited Carlos Alvarez, the DEA informant who'd learned too much and survived long enough to become dangerous.

Matt read the unredacted briefing. Alvarez knew names, dates, and financial records capable of toppling administrations—DEA brass on cartel payrolls, senators who'd looked the other way, intelligence officials who traded American blood for Colombian crypto. Phantom Squad existed in the shadows to clean up messes too dirty for legitimate channels.

A guard drifted from the compound's rear entrance, cigarette ember pulsing in the darkness. The AK-47 slung across his shoulder hung slack, his posture speaking of boredom and complacency, transforming guards into casualties.

Matt moved with fluid precision—ten steps from concealment to contact. Steel whispered from its sheath, the blade finding its target beneath the guard's jaw with meticulous control. Hot blood surged over Matt's knuckles as the carotid artery parted. The guard's pulse hammered against the blade—once, twice, then settling into the irregular flutter preceding death.