- Author
- Matt Johnson
Deadly Game is the sequel novel to Wicked Game (review here) which was reviewed on Arrse earlier this year. It continues on from that story with Detective Inspector Robert Finlay settling back in to the day to day routine following the attempts to kill him and other ex-members of an SAS team he was involved with. Finlay is ex-SAS, ex Royal protection team and is now trying to seek a more settled life as a run-of-the-mill detective running a shift in a normal police station. Life is not that easy for Finlay though as some people in the secret service have an eye on him for another task, quite unbeknown to Finlay.
He is having some therapy to get his life back on the straight and narrow, help with sleeping, relaxing etc and to help this he is sent off on a holiday at the firm’s expense. Now this alone should have raised some suspicions but Finlay naively goes off on this holiday and starts to become involved with a very dodgy Eastern European gang. He does this by saving the life of the young trophy wife of the leader of the gang!
To the plot. This book is about the horrific trade in people trafficking, kidnapping them for prostitution in western European countries including Britain. A person claiming to have been part of a squad of special forces who carried out a specific task in the Middle East/Afghanistan area has written a book giving more detail that the authorities would have liked, yet this guy never served in the SAS and is a bit of a walt – where did he get his information? His publisher is also the leader of the people trafficking gang. Finlay is tasked to get to know this guy and find out what he really knows and where he got his information. Having had his story splashed all over the UK media because of the previous plot (Wicked Game) Finlay is soon recognised and the chase begins. Things are happening which prove that there must be a mole in the security services and MI5 start playing off against MI6 and vice versa. Who is the mole? By sending Finlay in to get close the gang and the author the authorities hope to expose the mole. The action moves from London to Egypt to Roumania back to London then on to the England/Wales border where the gang have a base.
That is enough of the plot without giving the whole book away. This is a good story, well written and a good page turner. Plenty of action in an easy to read and reasonably believable way which is where the author brings his own army/police experience to play. I enjoyed this book as much as I did the first and hope that there will be more tales of Inspector Finlay, but if so the author is going to have to either make him a proper policeman or move him completely to MI5/6.
Four Mr Mushroomheads for this book. A good one to take away on holiday as it is a pacy thriller which is an easy and enjoyable read.
Amazon product
p.s. If you are thinking of buying this for a holiday read, get the first book also, it will be worth it.
He is having some therapy to get his life back on the straight and narrow, help with sleeping, relaxing etc and to help this he is sent off on a holiday at the firm’s expense. Now this alone should have raised some suspicions but Finlay naively goes off on this holiday and starts to become involved with a very dodgy Eastern European gang. He does this by saving the life of the young trophy wife of the leader of the gang!
To the plot. This book is about the horrific trade in people trafficking, kidnapping them for prostitution in western European countries including Britain. A person claiming to have been part of a squad of special forces who carried out a specific task in the Middle East/Afghanistan area has written a book giving more detail that the authorities would have liked, yet this guy never served in the SAS and is a bit of a walt – where did he get his information? His publisher is also the leader of the people trafficking gang. Finlay is tasked to get to know this guy and find out what he really knows and where he got his information. Having had his story splashed all over the UK media because of the previous plot (Wicked Game) Finlay is soon recognised and the chase begins. Things are happening which prove that there must be a mole in the security services and MI5 start playing off against MI6 and vice versa. Who is the mole? By sending Finlay in to get close the gang and the author the authorities hope to expose the mole. The action moves from London to Egypt to Roumania back to London then on to the England/Wales border where the gang have a base.
That is enough of the plot without giving the whole book away. This is a good story, well written and a good page turner. Plenty of action in an easy to read and reasonably believable way which is where the author brings his own army/police experience to play. I enjoyed this book as much as I did the first and hope that there will be more tales of Inspector Finlay, but if so the author is going to have to either make him a proper policeman or move him completely to MI5/6.
Four Mr Mushroomheads for this book. A good one to take away on holiday as it is a pacy thriller which is an easy and enjoyable read.
Amazon product
p.s. If you are thinking of buying this for a holiday read, get the first book also, it will be worth it.
