The Vengeance Man is back from the dead. For one last mission.
Former intelligence operative Mike Farrah thought he was done with spies, assassins and secret wars.
Then his old handler comes calling.
A ruthless enemy cell is operating on British soil.
The government needs bait.
Mike must become The Vengeance Man. A black-ops legend. A vanished assassin. A ghost everyone believes is buried.
Then Mike learns the truth about Dawn. The woman he loved didn’t die by
accident. She was murdered.
And the people who killed her are the same people now hunting him.
This isn’t just a mission. It’s revenge.
Because Mike Farrah has one chance to expose the killers.
One chance to avenge Dawn.
And one chance to survive being the most wanted ghost in Britain.
John MacRae is the cover name of a former senior Intelligence Officer with a Special Forces background. He has written extensively on intelligence and military history, and has worked for BBC television and other TV companies as an advisor on military and intelligence subjects. He saw active service in the Falkland Islands, Cyprus, Arabia, and Northern Ireland.
My thoughts: Told he just has to be the mysterious Fritz, the Vengeance Man, a voice on the end of the phone for the various government spooks involved in what becomes Operation Ajax, Mike Farrah agrees, although he still isn’t happy with the last job he did for the intelligence services, ending as it did with two dead women, and a plate in his head.
But of course, it doesn’t go to plan, and he’s up to his neck in rogue Israeli agents, dodgy documents, gun fights, questions about his finances, several guns that he has supposedly been officially given, suspected of killing a mugger, his flat being ransacked and other nonsense.
But he is sort of enjoying it, helped by his developing relationship with Anna, a woman who also knew Dawn, and wouldn’t mind getting some revenge on her killers too. Anna has her own money, her own flat and is far too savvy to fob off with his cover story, so she’s soon drawn into the plot.
There’s a lot of meetings both in Whitehall and various London pubs, dinners out and a dodgy but on paper stunningly clean Irish gangster/businessman who might have some work for Mike down the line. Seems like the Vengeance Man can retire but keep his hand in with the intelligence crowd, just in case.
At moments funny, then action packed, I really liked Mike and Anna, and was pleased nothing horrible happened to either of them. The whole case hinges on passing off some fake documents as the real thing and following the money to see who is so keen to get their hands on what they think is solid gold blackmail material.
It’s a clever premise and I think that Mike will continue to prove to be an asset as the series goes on, and possibly Anna as well, as she’s clever and well connected.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 