By Alan McDermott
Alan McDermott, the master of the firefight, has done it again. Just when you think he could not top the tension, pace and world-shattering implications of his plots, he has raised the bar again with his fifth Tom Gray book, Gray Vengeance.
Sometimes I wonder if Tom Gray isn’t getting tired of saving the United Kingdom and, indeed, the whole world. This is the fifth time in as many years, or even less.
In this installment, an African extremist group, dismissed by the top brass in the UK’s intelligence service, has a new leader with a plan to cripple Britain. The plan is so audacious and so well-thought-out, I really hope no terrorists read this book. Or that anti-terrorist planners do read it. (Note to the author: gift a copy to your MP, all cabinet ministers and anti-terror people.)
The attack is coordinated to strike on multiple targets using different types of weapons and tactics, simultaneously. It uses people that no one would suspect of being terrorists. And as always in a McDermott book, every detail is painstakingly planned and completely believable.
And what’s even more blood-chilling is the response of the UK and US government. It’s not giving away too much of the plot to say it involves surveillance of the entire population to a level that gives me nightmares and government snoops nocturnal emissions. And more kudos to McDermott for working out a plausible way to explain how this happens, and then to explore the ramifications through the plot.
The style
McDermott knows how not to let the details of the plot or the characterization get in the way of keeping the plot moving. The pace doesn’t let up as McDermott takes us from Britain to Africa and back.
With every successive book, McDermott also continues to develop his characters. I am especially pleased to see more about one of my favourite secondary characters of the series, the MI5 agent, Andrew Harvey. Let’s just say that, at long last, he finds love in this installment of the story.
The author also is adept at surprising us with characters who turn out to be the opposite of my initial reaction. And it doesn’t seem forced or false, at all. The characters develop completely believably.
In fact, this book is so believable, I’m starting to get worried about my travel plans to the UK.
5*
Gray Vengeance
By Alan McDermott
Published May 26, 2015 by Thomas & Mercer Press
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As always, Scott, another great review. I’ve read the first of the Tom Gray series and have been meaning to get back to the others. This review will get me off my butt.