Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: espionage

  • The Spear and the Sentinel

    The Spear and the Sentinel

    The Voodoo Series Book 2

    The Spear and the Sentential from JL Hancock sees Voodoo and the team back in action after almost a year of living a normal life, or what passes for normal, in the follow on from their last assignment as detailed in The Hawk Enigma.

    Unfortunately, the ‘God Algorithm’ was not recovered and while everything appears to have been quite this is not the case. The Chinese have been stealthily going about tracking down the Scientists responsible for the development of the Algorithm to retrieve data from the brain of murdered Scientist.

    To a point they have succeeded but it is only when it becomes apparent that they are going to use this to control public thought, capture intent before it becomes a reality and replace all thought globally with A.I are Voodoo, and the Team called into try and once again recover the Algorithm.

    The CIA Japanese office also wants Kobra Siddik retrieved from a Chinese re-education camp before anything else is undertaken. She has information they want and need but she has her own agenda which she intends to conduct before she cooperates with Voodoo and the CIA.

    But this time things are vastly different as the Team is not as bonded as they once were, with fractions beginning to appear and old scores once again possibly compromising the mission.

    Can they achieve what is so desperately needed or will they fail spectacularly as Voodoo comes under unexpected pressure from within the ranks and absolutely nothing is as it appears, constantly changing and reforming in another complex situation.

    Set against the soaring and spectacular mountains of Kazakhstan The Spear and the Sentinel delivers another fast paced, absolutely riveting Tecno-thriller that could be considered as prescient when you reflect the current situation with AI development and the lack of any governing, or moral boundaries.

    Once again, a slew of Military terminology has been used to set the scene for an exhilarating ride in the world of counter espionage.  Will there be a further challenge for Voodoo and the Team, only time will tell!

  • The Enemy Within

    The Enemy Within

     The past can have a very nasty way of catching up with you, as James Ryker discovers in his latest adventure The Enemy Within, as he becomes involved with seeking out and destroying a group of arms dealers and smugglers, which rips open a past he thought was well buried.

    Rob Sinclair uses past and present day in this fast paced journey into the dark side of life and hatred that is just below the surface at any given time, as Ryker is asked to seek out a man whom he last saw as a child of six years old; Gregor Minko, now known as Gregor Rebrov, a man who has become his fathers’ son in so many ways.

    Ryker is none too sure why he has been asked to find Rebrov, but when his former controller and now friend Peter Winter meets him, agreeing to back him, Ryker sets about doing what he does best, seeking out those who do not want to be found.

    He does not expect what fast becomes a becomes a very challenging time, to create such internal conflict, as at every turn his past reaches out to confront him. When he does finally discover what it is all about, far more than arms smuggling, he wonders if perhaps his past actions make him responsible for the damaged, angry and violent man who is now Gregor Rebrov.

    As London comes under possible attack by a man who blames the SIS and the world of Spies for his parent’s death and his terrible life from that time onward, Ryker is pushed to the limit both emotionally and physically. Is he really to blame, is the question that is uppermost in his mind.

    Based on the Russo-Ukranian war and their annexing of Crimea in 2014, Sinclair has used this still ongoing conflict, now melding into the Russo-Ukrainian conflict of current times, to create an all to believable plot using any means possible as weapons to eventually become the ‘winner takes all.’

    The Enemy Within needs to be read carefully as Ryker’s past life mixes with current day reality rapidly at times, often in a situation which involves several differing aspects of crime and subterfuge, which without due care can become confusing, but as with adventures in the James Ryker series, this one is gripping until the very last page.

  • Angel of Death

    Angel of Death

    In this gutsy, violent and enjoyable thriller Angel of Death, fans of clandestine espionage novels are in for a real treat in this riveting page-turner that segues from the Middle East to London, as James Ryker seeks out violent terrorist Ismail Karaman, a man who lives a very high profile life, is apparently untouchable, but is the head of a violent terrorist organisation known as The Syndicate.

    Angel, known as the Angel of Death, is a former SIS operative whose life has been systematically destroyed by Karaman. She blames him and the corruption within the SIS for her demise into hard drugs and alcoholism, the loss of her husband and her daughter. She is not allowed to see her daughter and her husband has remarried.

    She is recruited through a Health Retreat she attends as part of her rehabilitation program, to find and kill Karaman. But right from the beginning, although she is has agreed to be part of the three-person team for the money as well as the revenge, she feels something is not quite right.

    Ryker is on the same trajectory; to find and eliminate Karaman once and for all. His first attempt goes terribly wrong, which once again sees him languishing in goal, needing to be rescued. The person that arrives to release him is someone he never thought to see in the ‘field’ and makes him wonder just how far the tentacles of the Syndicate spread.

    After this debacle Ryker has decided he is better on his own, but finds himself having to rescue Angel from a murderous firefight, Karaman having escaped once again. As they have the same objective, they join forces to get the job done; to even the score and settle old debts.

    It is a moot point as to who is the more violent, Angel or Ryker, as they work their way across Europe to take on the man himself on home turf. But will they succeed?

    Fast paced and thoroughly enjoyable Angel of Death, the twelfth book in the James Ryker Series from Rob Sinclair, will have you in the action until the bitter end. What will Ryker take on next in his bid to make the world a better place? Time will tell!

  • The Shaman

    The Shaman

    Roland Perry is a prolific author who wanders across a vast spectrum of literature; fiction, non-fiction and documentary film writing, so when a book such as The Shaman is launched it titillates the curiosity a little, to see where the storyline will travel.

    The Shaman travels in every sense across the world, into the world of spiritual healing and expounds on modern technology, with something called cold-fusion technology which harnesses atomic energy from water. In the interest of understanding what this means and taken from Wikipedia ‘Cold fusion is a hypothesized type of nuclear reaction that would occur at, or near, room temperature. … They further reported measuring small amounts of nuclear reaction by products, including neutrons and tritium’.

    As this is the basis of the story line, as the Shaman has further developed this technology, it has made him the target for some serious international interest, none of which bodes well for him. His skill as healer sets the storyline, as when Victor Cavalier gets a phone call, to say his daughter has been involved in a motorcycle accident and is in a coma, he is in dread of losing his beautiful daughter. When news reaches him that scientist known as the Shaman has intervened to save his daughter’s life, he makes the decision to meet this man, this scientist who is involved with cold- fusion technology.

    Victor Cavalier is no ordinary guy either, as he is an investigative journalist well, or rather more than well versed in undercover operations. The further he investigates his daughter’s accident and the world of industrial science, the more he realises there are forces at work will stop at nothing to get control of this new technology.

    The chapters are short, which in so many ways is a blessing, as the story moves around the plot in way that appears to be disjointed and could be considered as somewhat confusing, although is well within the style of Perry’s writing.

    The Shaman is a book best read without to many interruptions, as it is easy to lose the context and have to re-read previous pages to reconnect.

  • The Imitator

    The Imitator

    Adopting the manners and attitudes of those around her, was something that Evelyn had done since she became a scholarship girl at Raheen, a prestigious private school. These qualities make Evelyn Varely the ideal woman to be recruited by MI5 as a counter intelligence spy.   In the historical fiction “The Imitator”, author Rebecca Starford has created a wonderful female spy fiction in which Evelyn, the main protagonist, is loosely based on the career of a real spy, Joan Miller, who was involved in wartime espionage which occurred in London between 1939 and 1940.

    After Evelyn, a bright student, the daughter of a Lewes working class couple won a scholarship to Raheen, she realised that in order to fit into the social circles at this boarding school and university she needed to hide her real self.  Having studied German at Oxford, Evelyn through her association with the well to do family of her friend Sally Wesley, obtained a position at the War Office, which soon led to her recruitment as spy.

    Her clandestine work as a member of the elite counter-intelligence department of Bennet White, involved infiltrating the Lion Society, a group of fascists; her ability to observe others and fit in with their way of living underlined her success. Having pretended to be something she wasn’t for most of her life, Evelyn had trouble understanding what was real; distinguishing friend from foe.

    I highly recommend this well research historical novel, which alternates between the late 1930s-1940s and 1948 to readers who enjoy a thought provoking book. With its plot twists and dramatic events, this fascinating fiction immerses the reader in the life of Evelyn in wartime London, keeping the reader reflecting on Evelyn’s dilemma long after the last page has been read.