The Assassin - Tom Fletcher

 

Sequel to The Ambassador by Tom Fletcher, out March 28th from Canelo

Tom Fletcher had a great success with his debut novel The Ambassador which told the tale of Ed Barnes, ambassador in Paris, France who survives an assassination attempt at his diplomatic household. The sequel shows Ed taking up a new position in Nairobi, Kenya.

The book starts breakneck and deals with two duelling narratives that eventually co-exist. Barnes must deal with a hostage situation at a major shopping mall in the city centre, where a Somali terrorist group take over and unfortunately his daughter, Stephanie, is amongst the captive group.

Having foiled those terrorists, Barnes returns to London to talk with the female Prime Minister Hermoine, who will attend a climate conference all amidst the wave of political assassinations taking place around the globe by the pseudonymous assassin who may or may not know Barnes.

The kills of the assassin are perhaps the best parts of the book - a real joy for the writer to throw caution to the wind eliciting different deaths for not very nice people in grand surroundings. 

It is the general narrative with the balance of family dynamics and climate change political wrangling that forces the book to sometimes slow down when the pace of terrorist attacks and surprise kills is where the excitement is.

Typical of books this reader has read lately, where the foundation and building blocks of the book in the first half are critical to the cut and thrust of the second half when tension is ramped up and pays off.

Credit to Fletcher who as a former foreign policy advisor has the legitimacy of knowledge to convey and commit to the story and in Barnes he has a genuine hero who wants to do the right thing despite the political climate around him.

The Assassin is out on 28th March from Canelo 

My thanks to them for the review copy via NetGalley.

THE BURNING TIME - Peter Hanington

 

New William Carver novel out July 6th from Baskerville 

Timely and perscient, Hannington has written a novel that is both of our time and for our time as we follow investigative journalist William Carver who attempts to take down an Australian inventor, Clive Winner who may or may not hold the secret to global warming.

William is tipped off by a Whitehall insider who fears that the influence Winner is having over the current PM is doing an injustice to government policy when ulterior motives may be more apparent for the antipodean.

Globe-trotting from Spain to Washington DC and Sydney to London; Hannington has captured the spirit of Jason Bourne for journalism with a fast paced taut thriller that is unputdownable.

Paranoid thriller tropes abound from suspicious disappearances to the general sense of being followed along with the presence of the lazy eyed henchman who strikes fear into all who cross paths with him.

Short, sharp chapters maintain attention and the tight plotting moves along a pace keeping the reader enthralled with intrigue and panic, and how refreshing to see a journalist be the hero for once in narrative fiction.

A must for new people to the series and character in the same vein as Mick Herron

THE BURNING TIME is out 6th July from Baskerville 

My thanks to Baskerville for the review copy.