Category: reviews

A bundle of old, what appear to be recollections and witness statements, are discovered in an attic by a son following the death of his father.

They tell the tale of three teenage school friends who are involved in a prank that almost costs the life of one of them. Whilst they all follow different and diverse career paths, the incident creates a lifelong bond of trust.

Some two decades later, that trust is put to the test when Gordon Shawcross helps another and in doing so, puts himself under suspicion of treason. Gordon’s ordinary life touches, for a brief moment, extraordinary heights.

Set in the dying embers of the Cold War, A Life Quite Ordinary tracks the mundane life of Gordon, who is catapulted into the challenging threats of the late 1980s with the Cold War, AIDS and homosexual rights in the armed forces. The novel covers the East-West interface of the British Commanders-in-Chief’s Mission to the Soviet Forces BRIXMIS, mixed with
burlesque cabaret and church architecture.

A Life Quite Ordinary is a fact-based novel that deals with serious matters in a gripping but plausible manner.

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Bryan Campbell Johnston was raised and schooled in North Yorkshire and returned with his wife, Wendy, to live in Richmondshire in 2020. Bryan has three children, two step-children and he and Wendy have two grandchildren.
Between leaving North Yorkshire and returning, Bryan had both a military and legal career.

His military career started at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and ended as a Major commanding an infantry company during Gulf War I. In-between he served in Germany and Northern Ireland and other outposts around the shrinking globe.

His legal career started at The University of Westminster and the School of Law and ended as a Solicitor and Managing Partner of a law firm.

In-between Bryan was involved in the arts as a Director and Trustee of a regional theatre for six years. He has been, among other appointments, Chair of a charity and Chair of a Chamber of Commerce. Bryan is a trained Mediator.

Bryan wrote articles for a business magazine for several years; he had a play performed at Brentwood Theatre and his adaptation of Northanger Abbey was performed in over 31 locations by a professional touring troupe.

Bryan’s hobbies include writing, theatre, horse racing, sailing, golf, trekking and skiing.

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My thoughts: I wasn’t sure what to make of this at first, there are multiple narrative view points that build up the story of three old school friends and a brush with the world of espionage in the age of the Cold War. It was really interesting and clever, and I was hooked. I liked the little facts between each section too.

Gordon Shawcross saves the life of a school friend at a party, and years later that same friend – known as Jaffa, comes to ask a favour. It seems quite innocent but ends with Shawcross being threatened with arrest for treason.

His friends Geordie and Jaffa contribute their narratives, along with a few others, to explain how Gordon ended up in that situation. It’s a story of mistaken identities, people trying to do the right thing, a little paranoia and the bonds of friendship.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

A defector on the run. A faceless assassin. Breed’s toughest mission.

When CIA operator Anya Stein offers Breed a job in Vienna, he arrives just in time to save her from Russian assassins led by a deadly blonde in dark sunglasses.
Stein explains the mission: protect defecting rocket scientist Dieter Kromik, who holds the secret to Russia’s devastating Oreshnik missile – a conventional weapon that delivers a
nuclear-sized punch.

The Russians already have elite teams on the ground – and they’ll do whatever it takes to find and kill Kromik. Spetsnaz teams and the enigmatic assassin Strelko hunt them through the streets of Vienna and escape seems impossible. Their only hope lies with the Magnificent Strang, an ageing Cold War-era magician who once smuggled fugitives across the Iron  Curtain.

With his beautiful granddaughter Liesl, Strang guides the group on a deadly journey from  Vienna to Prague to Berlin. Outnumbered and outgunned at every turn, Breed fights a running battle across Europe as the body count rises.

The bloody finale awaits in a smoky Berlin nightclub, where Breed and Stein must use every one of their lethal skills – and a few of Strang’s illusions – to survive against impossible odds.

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Cameron Curtis has spent thirty years on trade floors as a trader and risk manager. He was on the trade floor when Saddam’s tanks rolled into Kuwait, when the air wars opened over Baghdad and Belgrade, and when the financial crisis swallowed the world. Having written fiction as a child, he is the author of the Breed action thriller series.

My thoughts: For Breed, it seems the Cold War never really ended. He’s still facing the same foes – Russians with bad attitudes towards international relations. He’s assisting in transporting a scientist across Europe for Stein and the CIA. Unfortunately, that isn’t a popular decision for regular nemesis Orlov, who once again faces Breed, gun in hand.

As they attempt to escape their pursuers, Stein and Breed enlist an old friend of Stein’s grandfather, the illusionist The Magnificent Strang, who once smuggled defectors across the Iron Curtain. Can he do the same for them and get them safely from Prague to Berlin, where the plane awaits?

Fast-paced and with a rather large and messy body count across three countries, Breed is rapidly running out of places he’s welcome, and Stein has some colleagues who aren’t very helpful at all. Relying on essentially the kindness of strangers rather than fellow agents, she has no real choice either. There’s a little bit of time for sightseeing, which considering they’re on the run, is quite funny. But Breed enjoys seeing the world in between gunfights.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.