Tag: thrillers

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.

Crystal-clear waters. Cold-blooded murder. Deep blue lies. When Ava Whitaker is kicked out of medical school – and dumped by her boyfriend – her life falls apart. But the real problem isn’t her future. It’s in her past. She was born on the Greek island of Alythos, where her mother once mixed cocktails at the luxurious Aegean Dream Resort. Yet her mother has never spoken about that time, never explained why she left so suddenly, and never answered the one question that’s haunted Ava her entire life: Who was her father?

Desperate for answers, Ava travels to Alythos to discover the truth. But what begins as a search for her identity quickly turns into something far more sinister. The island’s aquamarine waters hide tragic secrets. The locals’ smiles don’t reach their eyes. And the abandoned resort, with its cracked pool and vine-strangled terraces, feels like a tomb.

Because something happened here twenty years ago. Something the locals have spent decades trying to forget. And something somebody will do anything to keep buried…

My thoughts: Dear Parents, please tell your children the truth about their parentage if there are any questions e.g. who’s their father or if they’re adopted. Otherwise, like Ava, they might go digging and find things out you’d rather they didn’t.

Ava knows that her dad is Greek and that she was conceived when her mum was working at a holiday resort on the island of Alythos. But her mum won’t tell her anything else, like her dad’s name or why they up and left Greece so quickly.

So, having been forced to drop out of medical school, Ava’s off to Greece, armed with a photo of her mum, a few facts and a whole lot of supposition.

But as she learns about what happened at the resort twenty-three years ago, the questions mount up. Is she the baby left alive after the murder/suicide of the resort’s manager and his girlfriend? How does her mum fit in to that story? As Imogen (her mum’s friend) and her mum also head out to Greece, will Ava finally get some answers and will what she learns give her the peace she needs?

Full of shocking revelations and twists, this is one summer of discovery no one is coming away from unchanged.

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

In the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7th attack on Israel, Mossad’s London station chief Eli Amiram is fighting battles on all fronts. When his ambitious rival plans an assassination on British soil – supposedly authorized by Trump supporters – Eli suspects a deeper conspiracy.

Meanwhile, British intelligence asset Petra is hunting for redemption. Tasked with recruiting Wasim Al-Arikhi – whose sister she failed to save from becoming a suicide bomber – Petra’s drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse. Can Wasim be trusted or has she become a target?

As Eli and Petra’s paths converge, they discover that in the shadow world of international espionage, the greatest threats often come from within. They must confront not just their enemies, but their own moral choices.

A sophisticated spy thriller that weaves together tradecraft, betrayal and the human cost of intelligence work.

Merle Nygate is a screenwriter, screenwriting lecturer and novelist. Her career has taken her from working on BAFTA winning TV to New York Festival audio drama to writing original sitcoms. She previously worked for BBC Comedy Commissioning. She has been a writer and script editor across multiple genres. Her first espionage novel won the Little Brown/UEA Crime Fiction award. Her second was a Sunday Times Thriller of 2024.

My thoughts: A very timely read, concerning itself with the immediate aftermath of the October 7th attack in Israel and the Mossad agents stationed in the UK.

Eli is an interesting figure – he’s worried about the temporary head of the Washington office, who is all gungho for an assassination to take place on British soil, but his information is a bit suspect and Eli needs to prove it’s a bad call.

He’s also attempting to recruit a student – Wasim who he thinks might be a good source of information. But after being rebuffed he sends in Petra, who knew Wasim’s sister. Unfortunately Wasim has to come to the attention of a rather troubling individual and now Petra has to resolve things.

There’s a bit of sneaking around in the countryside, meetings in coffee shops and restaurants with spies from other countries – and their own side, and personal problems for Eli and his number two.

It was a really interesting read, and managed not to be too weighted or lecturing. Even the Mossad agents are at a loss as to how to react to the events unfolding in their home country, they just have to try to focus on their jobs. It was a clever, intelligent thriller and the characters are engaging and realistic.

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

In a waiting room hidden high away from everyone, six disgraced celebrities are desperate to recover their heavily tainted reputations. An incredibly controversial new gameshow is offering them a route back to the big time, along with a $7.2 million cash prize. But with no consolation
prizes and serious consequences every time someone loses out, will signing up prove their salvation or their downfall?

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Half-Mexican, half-Welsh and growing up in London, Alex Raphael was surrounded by different influences and interests. But it was always books that spoke to him most and had the greatest impact.

He started writing when at college, where his love of reading evolved into a desire to write, in particular focusing on poetry and short stories. Studying English and American Literature at university meant he took a break from writing, as well as giving him the chance to see more of
Mexico on his travels. He concentrated on his journalistic career while working on different writing projects, but his favourite genre of literature has always been short stories as they are what first inspired him to write.

That’s why his first book was The Summer of Madness, a romantic short story that tells of a guy who goes out to try to win his ex-girlfriend back. Will you be rooting for Kurt and his big public gesture or is it more complicated than that and you don’t want her to date him again? Either way you’ll get to know a memorable set of characters along for the ride.

His second book Illusions, Delusions reflects Raphael’s love of alternative short stories from the writers of his childhood and challenges the idea of the narrative. Will your favourite be the story in
the form of a questionnaire, a poem or a set of jokes, among the seven very different styles?

Alexander Raphael’s third book is Always Never, Rarely Sometimes, featuring original premises and distinctive characters with his trademark imagination, humour and memorable dialogue. Among others, meet a sinister magician with an array of pranks, a long-suffering husband finally becoming
more decisive and a group of young guys intrigued by a pretty woman at another table.

Alexander Raphael’s latest offering is The Gameshow, about six disgraced celebrities who are unaware of just how much trouble they are in, having signed up for the most provocative of television shows. His satirical debut novel is a look at the constant decision-making needed by stars
to remain popular and relevant, and just how desperate they can become when the wrong decisions are made.

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My thoughts: Six disgraced celebrities, including an American football player, a comedian and a singer, are offered the opportunity to reclaim their spotlight by going on a mysterious new gameshow.

With a spin of the wheel one of them will face their biggest fear – there can only be one winner, it’s all a game of chance and under constant camera surveillance, will one of them crack before they face their fears?

It gets controversial and the enigmatic producer, Selina, refuses to step down the game, pushing the contestants to their limits and amping up the tension.

Even the end of the game comes with a twist, one you won’t expect.

Clever and with a sinister undertone, this is one show you won’t want to miss.

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

She shared her darkest secrets. Now someone is using them to destroy her.

New mother Shelly should be enjoying the happiest time of her life. She’s just given birth to a beautiful baby boy, Alfie.
But Alfie’s arrival has triggered something deep inside Shelly and now she finds herself at the mercy of crippling OCD and violent intrusive thoughts that terrify her. Desperate for help, she joins a therapy group led by renowned psychologist Dr Andrea Galanis.

It doesn’t work. Instead of helping, somehow therapy seems to be bringing her very worst fears to life.
What Shelly doesn’t realise is that someone from her dark past has infiltrated the group. And now she is sharing her most private secrets with a person who is determined to rip her life apart, one painful piece at a time.

With everything and everyone she cares about under threat, Shelly has a simple choice – confront the horrifying truth she’s kept hidden for almost twenty years, or face every mother’s worst nightmare – losing the child she loves.

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Hailing from Yorkshire, OMJ Ryan worked in radio and entertainment for over twenty years, collaborating with household names and accumulating a host of international writing and radio
awards. In 2018 he followed his passion to become a full-time novelist, writing stories for people who devour exciting, fast-paced thrillers by the pool, on their commute – or those rare moments of downtime before bed. Owen’s mission is to entertain from the first page to the last.
This is his first psychological thriller with Inkubator Books. OMJ also writes the Jane Phillips crime thriller series.

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My thoughts: Shelly is doing the right thing in getting help and support for her OCD and intrusive thoughts, from a professional. But someone in the group session she attends isn’t who they claim to be and they’re out to get her due to a belief that she did something terrible years ago.

Suddenly her life is in free fall, sacked, accused of theft, her marriage in trouble, and nowhere to turn. Her new friend Jess suggests she needs to take a break and reassess, but can she trust what she hears? 

An obsessive, grieving person is attempting to destroy her, to dismantle her whole life, and it is only when her son is threatened, that she learns why things have become so awful. And has to reveal the truth.

Clever, shocking and full of twists, this will keep you hooked as Shelly’s life is dismantled piece by piece.  

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