Independent reviews of your favourite books & role play games
Sphere of Influence by Kyle Mills
Mills’ Maverick FBI agent Mark Beamon is one of Boris’ favourite heroes and in Boris’ opinion this story is one of the best yet. Exiled to a dead-end job in the Phoenix office, Beamon is recalled to work undercover when terrorists threaten the USA. As Beamon seeks them out he uncovers a darker conspiracy that may have its roots in the American government itself. Beamon’s own values are challenged and he is faced with the question ‘what makes a crime a crime?’
Another excellent thriller from another of Boris’ favourite writers. Boris
Blindfold Game by Dana Stabenow
A witness to a terrorist bombing in Thailand puts CIA analyst Hugh Rincon on the trail of the terrorists responsible. Hearing rumours about the black market sale of Russian radioactive material and the hiring of mercenaries, Hugh starts to fit the pieces of the puzzle together. Meanwhile, Hugh’s estranged wife, Executive Officer on board the US Coast Guard cutter ‘Sojourner Truth’ is dealing with Russian trawler infringements off the Alaskan coast. When Hugh realises that the terrorists plan an audacious sea launched attack on the USA and can get no help from his organisation, he realises that only the ‘Sojourner Truth’ has the means to foil the plot and save the USA from a disaster worse than 9/11.
Contact Zero by David Wolstencroft
The ‘Lilywhites’, MI6’s newest spies, are being hunted down and killed across the globe. Ben Sinclair should have been one of those killed, but was lucky and escaped. Lucy too should have died, locked in the boot of a car, but managed to get out before she drowned and Nat, well he was run off a road in Cuba, but managed to get away. The other ‘Lilywhites’, like Claire are dead.The three of them join forces and try to make sense of what has happened. They know they have only one chance for survival, find the mythical place called ‘Contact Zero’, but with all the odds against them this won’t be easy. Brilliant thriller from the creator of BBC’s ‘Spooks’.
The Third Woman by Mark Burnell
Stephanie Patrick used to work for Magenta House, a shadowy government organisation and is known by many names, Krista, Marianne and Michelle among many. One of her persona’s is that of the assassin Petra Reuter, now free lance, but as deadly as ever. After narrowly surviving a terrorist attack in Paris, blamed on Petra, Stephanie finds herself fleeing from a ruthless, faceless enemy. She seizes a hostage, Robert Newman, an international trouble shooter with secrets of his own. Hunted across Europe from Paris to Vienna, Stephanie and Robert are thrown together in order to survive. The more that she learns, the more Stephanie believes that the person she knows as The Third Woman is the key to everything and Newman seems to be at the heart of the conspiracy she has found herself unravelling.
Boris wouldn’t like to meet Petra on a dark night, or any other one for that matter. She’s the type of woman his Aunty Dot warned him about! Boris
Final Winter by Brendan DuBois
Brian Doyle is a NYPD detective who has been chosen to join Tiger Team Seven, one of the elite teams within Homeland Security with members drawn from all the agencies involved in the war on terror. The team learn that there is a serious threat to launch a biological attack against the USA and a plan code named ‘Final Winter’ is put into place to counter it. There is a traitor in the team however who is using ‘Final Winter’ to un lease their own deadly attack, which if successful will kill millions and bring America to its knees. Soon Doyle finds himself in a race to uncover the traitor and stop the attack.
State of Fear by Michael Crichton
An epic novel which moves in thrilling action from continent to continent as a young lawyer uncovers a sinister plot to engineer a series of environmental disasters. Peter Evans, a young lawyer acting on behalf of millionaire George Morton, discovers that all is not as it seems at the National Environmental Resource Fund (NERF), a major American environmental activist group which Morton extensively funds. Joining forces with Sarah Jones, Morton’s beautiful assistant; the mysterious intelligence agent and environmental specialist John Kenner and his buddy Sanjong Thapa, Evans soon finds himself in deadly danger, as the group race to stop eco-terrorists from unleashing the terrible forces of nature to substantiate their claims of pending global crisis.
Midnight comes at Noon by Daniel Easterman
When Joel Waterstone the new Jewish President of the USA is kidnapped from a quiet Northumberland village Jim Crawford sets out to find the kidnappers. Not only was the President and the First Lady taken and spirited away, but also Jim’s young daughter, Tina and Jim’s wife Laura died trying to protect them all. The international hunt takes Jim and his friends to a Russia in the crisis of a civil war. It also brings them up against dark forces in the heart of the US government who would prefer it if Joel Waterstone died at his kidnappers hands. If Joel dies then so does Tina and Jim Crawford is determined that this won’t happen. This is the first book by Daniel Easterman, but it certainly won’t be the last.
An excellent first novel. Boris
Wild Fire by Nelson De Mille
Harry Muller, a member of the Federal Anti-Terrorrist Task Force is killed and Detective John Corey and his wife, Kate Mayfield, an FBI agent soon find themselves investigating the Custer Hill Club, a secret society whose members include some of America’s most powerful men. What secrets had Harry Muller uncovered that led to his death? And what is ‘Wild Fire’. Soon John and Kate’s lives are in danger as digging deep into the veil of mystery surrounding the club, they discover what ‘Wild Fire’ really is and realise that if Armageddon is to be avoided , they must act swiftly. Nelson De Mille never disappoints and this novel is another thrilling read.
Just shows what these rich folk get up to in their fancy clubs. I told Mrs B that’s why I wouldn’t join the Golf Club.
Boris
Boris
Old Boys by Charles McCarry
When ex-intelligence agent Paul Christopher is declared dead by the Chinese his cousin Horace, also an ex-agent does not believe the news and decides to seek the truth. Enlisting the support of four of his former, now also retired colleagues he gets the ‘Old Boys’ back into the game. They soon pick up clues that Christopher could also be alive along with an old adversary of theirs, Ibn Awad a terrorist, who is plotting revenge by planning nuclear attacks on US cities. Christopher’s long lost mother Lori may also be alive and in possession of the ‘Amphora Scroll’ a first century AD manuscript coveted by Ibn Awad as it may be the means to discredit the Christian faith. With three trails to follow, Horace & the ‘Old Boys’ are harassed by US intelligence and hunted by terrorists as they scour the globe for Christopher, Lori and the ‘Amphora Scroll’.
Red to Black by Alex Dryden
A spy story and a tale of doomed love, Alex Dryden’s debut thriller is both. Anna a colonel in the KGB’s SVR, its foreign intelligence service, is sent to spy on Finn an MI6 spy. Finn is of especial interest to the KGB as it is believed that he is the link to ‘Mikhail’, a deep source within the Kremlin who has told Finn of ‘The Plan’ conceived in the dark days of the Cold War, the ultimate aim of which is to dismantle the Soviet state and to bring about the rise of a new empire, using peaceful, but nefarious means. The fleeting days of democracy have ended in Russia and the new regime led by its ex-KGB President is actively pursuing the plan. Finn is obsessed with uncovering it, but his handlers are sceptical and prefer to think of the President and his new Russia as ‘someone they can do business with’. Anna finds herself falling in love with Finn, but the dangerous path he is following will end in tragedy.
A highly topical story in view of what has happened in the world the past twelve months with a finely woven plot which kept Boris enthralled. Boris
Fade by Kyle Mills
US Homeland Security has formed a secret wing to recruit agents to work undercover in the Middle East in the war on terror and its Director, Hillel Strand, wants Matt Egan, his second-in-command to recruit an old friend of his. Salam Al Fayed. ‘Fade’ would be the perfect recruit, but Fade is embittered over the treatment he received when a previous Special Ops mission, left him with a bullet lodged next to his spine. Attempts to recruit Fade fail and when an attempt to coerce him goes badly wrong and when a SWAT team sent to get Fade is almost wiped out Fade goes on the run, taking its leader Karen Manning prisoner. Fade soon realises that the SWAT team was set up by Strand and decides to go after him. A deadly cat & mouse game ensues as after releasing Karen, Fade stalks his prey, determined on revenge.
Timebomb by Gerald Seymour
Gerald Seymour has wrote some cracking novels over the years, ‘Harry’s Game’ and ‘Archangel’ being two which immediately spring to mind. This tale of an undercover police officer infiltrating a criminal gang acting as middlemen, in the sale of a nuclear suitcase bomb, stolen from a top secret Soviet base by a disgruntled KGB major, Oleg Yashkin, is no exception. Jonathan Carrick, an undercover police officer has successfully infiltrated the family of Josef Goldmann a member of the Russian mafia who launders money for the organisation in London. When Goldmann becomes involved in the purchase of the device, Carrick finds himself involved in a far, far dangerous game, than the one he first became involved in. With the story quickly switching between Carrick in London and the bombs journey across Russia to the rendezvous point in Poland, it is non-stop action from the first page. A great tale and if you like the novels of John le Carré, you’ll probably like this.
Spooks, Plots and Conspiracies
An excellent story with a worthy challenger to both James Bond & Bourne. Boris
Tsar by Ted Bell
In Boris’ opinion Ted Bell’s special agent Alex Hawke is a more than worthy challenger to James Bond, In this thriller Alex who is recovering on a Caribbean island from his adventures in South America (recounted in ‘Spy’ reviewed by Boris last year). He is soon called back into action however when Russia gains a new leader who is hell bent on restoring its former borders and ‘reintegrating’ its rogue states. Hawke has his work cut out to defeat his formidable foe who not content in being president is crowned Tsar, An excellent story with Alex at one point finding himself sharing a cell with Mr Putin, yes that Mr Putin who is cast as something of a hero in this novel.
The Last Pope by Luis Miguel Rocha
When young journalist Sarah Monteiro receives a mysterious package she has no inkling that moments afterwards her life will be danger. The package contains a list of names and a coded message which it seems hold the key to a deadly secret. A masked assassin tries to kill her and fleeing, Sarah finds an unlikely saviour, a man she does not know and whose motives are unknown. Sarah’s father’s name is on the list and she soon learns that she is embroiled in a plot involving unscrupulous mercenaries and crooked politicians. A plot that goes to the very heart of the Vatican and concerns the death of a Pope. Portugese writer Luis Miguel Rocha has written a fine thriller which will entertain and delight conspiracy buffs. If you like stories of the ‘Vatican Mafia’, the Illuminati or their like, you’ll enjoy this book.
As Boris’ has often told Mrs B. There’s a lot goes on behind the walls of the Vatican. Boris
A Wild Justice by Craig Thomas
First published in 1995 this thriller by Craig Thomas still has a topical theme, with the story mainly set in the post Soviet era Russia. John Lock’s beloved sister is married to the chief executive of an American gas company with interests in the Siberia. When Lock’s sister and her husband are murdered in their opulent mansion, Lock a State Department expert on Russia and a former CIA agent swears revenge on their murderers and starts to dig for the truth. Meanwhile in Novvy Urengoy, Siberia, Alexei Vorontsyev, is investing the murder of another executive of the gas company and soon finds his investigation blocked from every side. Alexei is an honest cop however and doesn’t let this impede him. Both Lock and Vorontsyev start to uncover a conspiracy of ruthless corruption and come up against people ho will readily kill to conceal the truth.
An exciting read, which is still relevant to to what is happening in the world today. Boris
Dead Spy Running by Jon Stock
Daniel Marchant’s father was head of MI6 before being suspected of being a traitor & disgraced. Daniel too is a MI6 agent but is suspended from duty also suspected of treachery. Running in the London Marathon Daniel finds himself next to a man strapped with explosives and although Daniel saves the day and the US Ambassador in the process, Daniel is still suspected of being a traitor by both the CIA & MI5. To clear both his late father’s name and his own, Daniel has to go on the run and makes a perilous journey via Poland & India to find the man who can clear them both. A well crafted spy novel with a twist in the tale .
The Defector by Daniel Silva
Daniel Silva the author of ‘The New York Times’ number one bestseller ‘Moscow Rules’ has written another great thriller in ‘The Defector’, Gabriel Allon, Silva’s spy turned art restorer hero is trying to resume his honeymoon in the seclusion of the Umbrian hills with his new wife Chiara, also an agent in the Israeli Intelligence services. News comes to them that Grigori Bulganov, the former Russian Intelligence Officer who saved Gabriel’s life and defected to the west has gone missing, leaving his British hosts with the sinking feeling that Bulganov was a double agent and has returned to his former masters. Gabriel thinks differently and suspects the hand of old enemy Ivan Kharkov in all of this. Action packed from page one, Gabriel faces death and worse before the day is won.
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This novel reminded Boris of the novels by Len Deighton or John le Carré. Boris
