Lee Allen's Blog - Posts Tagged "action-thriller"

The Visitor by Lee Child

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Jack Reacher becomes embroiled in the FBI's hunt for a serial killer in the fourth in Lee Child's series.

Following the events of 'Tripwire', Reacher is attempting to live a normal life, with a fixed address and in a steady relationship with Jodie, returning from the previous novel. But when Reacher sees injustice, he cannot resist righting the wrong in his own way. He soon finds himself arrested - but the FBI appear to suspect him of another crime. Two women are dead, both ex-Army, found immersed in baths of paint, causes of death unknown. The FBI's Behavioural Science Unit's profile indicates the perpetrator is someone a lot like Reacher.

Drawn deeper into the investigation against his will, Reacher initially resists cooperating, but soon becomes driven to find the killer responsible as the body count rises. But he also finds himself facing his own personal challenge - he misses his days of freedom, which he has turned his back on because of his feelings for Jodie.

With each development, the killer still seems to be far ahead - clever, resourceful and cunning - but Reacher strives on, fitting the pieces together. But will he be in time to save the next victim?

The third in the series, 'Tripwire', was brilliant, but 'The Visitor' may have even topped that. Intense and thrilling, the novel builds to a tense climax with a satisfying and perfectly illustrated twist. With action-packed scenes, psychological insights, gang wars and even a crime-busting partner for Reacher in the form of Harper, the FBI agent assigned to watch his every move, this is a mash-up of thriller sub-genres with Reacher as the (anti-) hero at its heart. His methods may at times be questionable, but he is always on the side of justice.

Reacher's personal struggles develop a greater emotional depth and give the reader further insight into the character we first met in 'Killing Floor' shortly after he left the Army. I will soon be diving eagerly into 'Echo Burning' to find out what's next.



View all my reviews

The Defence by Steve Cavanagh

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


An intense, gripping legal thriller by Steve Cavanagh, introducing the character of Eddie Flynn, reluctant lawyer and reformed conman.

Accosted by members of the Russian Mafia, Eddie is forced, under threat of his daughter’s life, to take on the case of mob boss Olek Volchek, who is on trial for murder. But it’s not an acquittal they seek – they wish Eddie to plant a bomb to dispose of the key witness in the trial, who is currently in witness protection and known to the public only as Witness X. Volchek knows who betrayed him, but is unable to access him until he arrives in court. Left with little choice, his daughter kidnapped and her life hanging in the balance, Eddie smuggles the bomb past security into the courthouse.

As he familiarises himself with the case, determined to save his daughter’s life and avoid taking the life of Witness X if possible, Eddie believes he may have a chance of winning Volchek’s case. He knows even that won’t guarantee his daughter’s life and comes up with a daring plan to ensure her safety, having to thwart not only his captors, but the FBI agents with a keen interest in the case and now in him.

Eddie Flynn is an endearing, relatable character – he reminded me of John Grisham’s Mitch McDeere (featured in ‘The Firm’), with a dash of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher thrown in. You could easily imagine Tom Cruise playing him in a film adaptation. Delving into his backstory throughout the novel, we learn how he turned his back on his criminal past to become a defence attorney, before also turning his back on the law after losing his family, now forced to return to both careers against his will. This isn’t a straightforward or typical legal thriller, as much as Flynn isn’t a straightforward or typical lawyer.

Seizing you from its opening scene, ‘The Defence’ barrels relentlessly through to its conclusion. A superb debut novel; a high-stakes legal thriller packed with courtroom dramatics, gangland villains, breath-taking action and edge-of-your seat suspense. I cannot wait to read more from Steve Cavanagh and Eddie Flynn.



View all my reviews
Visit me on Facebook
Follow me on Twitter

Echo Burning by Lee Child

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Jack Reacher returns in another gripping thriller, the lawless drifter finding himself caught in a tangled web of prejudice, corruption and violence.

Under the heat of the Texas sun, a boy and two men watch a house, tracking and recording the movements of its occupants. Meanwhile, a team of professional assassins - a woman and two men – are beginning a mission. Alone and adrift, Jack Reacher chooses to avoid a confrontation with an angry Texas cop with whom he had an altercation in a bar the previous evening. Thumbing for a lift, he is surprised when a young woman pulls over. But Carmen Greer has an ulterior motive and Reacher is exactly the sort of person she’s been looking for. Her abusive husband is due to be released from prison. Terrified at the prospect of his release and desperate for a new life with their young daughter, she has a proposal – she wants Reacher to kill her husband.

But Reacher is not a cold-blooded assassin. Yet he is sympathetic to her plight and agrees to do what he can to help, claiming to her husband’s family that he is simply looking for work on the ranch. Only he soon realises that his agreement to warn off an abusive bully only scratches the surface of what lies rotten and decaying under the intense heat and the situation is about to become far more complicated.

Fast-paced and action-packed with a character-driven heart, ‘Echo Burning’ is a fantastic entry in the Reacher series, which goes from strength to strength. I particularly liked the relationship Reacher developed with Carmen’s young daughter, Ellie; while the determined and hard-working young lawyer, Alice, is a refreshing female character in a genre that is often male-dominated. In fact, the whole concept of ‘Echo Burning’ – exploring spousal abuse and racial prejudice, and featuring several strong female characters – makes the novel stand out from the crowd.

Aside from references to Reacher’s girlfriend Jodie (who featured in the two previous novels, ‘Tripwire’ and ‘The Visitor’), this is very much a standalone entry in the series and can easily be read independently or out-of-sequence. Jack Reacher is such a brilliant character to go on a journey with – a tough loner driven by a strong moral code, never afraid to question authority and the perceived ‘normal’ in the pursuit of justice. Reacher’s situation allows for different formulas to be explored in each novel – ‘Echo Burning’ is part action thriller, part domestic thriller, with a touch of social legal drama.

Building to a storming finale, ‘Echo Burning’ delivers another untangled mystery, merciless retribution and crumbling of injustice, with Reacher walking out into the heat once again adrift, doubtless on his way to get caught up in his next adventure.



View all my reviews
Visit me on Facebook
Follow me on Twitter
Follow me on Instagram

Without Fail by Lee Child

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Jack Reacher receives a plea to thwart an assassination plot.

Reacher is approached by Secret Service team leader Froelich - her responsibility to protect the Vice President Elect - requesting he undertake an independent assessment of their procedures.

Reacher finds himself persuaded to help, but the situation is far more severe than he is initially led to believe - threats have been made against the incoming Vice President that the Service have reason to take seriously.

Becoming evermore embroiled in an increasingly dangerous situation, Reacher experiences lines blurring as the mission grows more complex. Perhaps, this time, the enemy may prove the victor.

'Without Fail' is Lee Child's sixth novel featuring ex-US Army Major Jack Reacher, now a wanderer with no fixed abode, journeying from place to place having left his life behind, often becoming embroiled in trouble along the way and attempting to right injustices. In this installment, we delve a little more into his past and his relationship with his brother, Joe, who died several years earlier.

With a high-octane plot and ever-increasing stakes, the novel presents as a political thriller entwined with a heavy dose of action, mystery and a touch of romance. We are plunged immediately into the unfolding drama, the Secret Service tracking Reacher down shortly after Election Day, disturbing his anonymity. From the corridors of power to unforgiving rural terrain, against the backdrop of harsh winter, we hurtle onwards to an intense climax, Lee Child once again delivering a gripping, suspenseful and action-packed adventure.

Like many action thriller series, there is something oddly comforting about the Reacher novels, despite its violence, imposing threat and military themes. Partly formulaic, while also exploring different sub-genres in a different setting in each novel, you have confidence that Reacher will always successfully stop the villains in their tracks, by whatever means necessary. He works outside the law, outside society, to his own moral code, an antihero not averse to a touch of vigilantism or all-out vengeance if the need arises.

Engrossing and fast-paced, 'Without Fail' is another solid chapter in the Reacher series, leaving you anticipating where the next step in his journey will take him.



View all my reviews
Visit me on Facebook
Follow me on Twitter
Follow me on Instagram

The Liar by Steve Cavanagh

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Eddie Flynn returns for another gripping high-stakes case.

Eddie’s services are sought by Leonard Howell, whose daughter has been kidnapped and a ransom demanded for her return. Giving in to the kidnappers’ demands will land Howell in legal trouble and he wishes to be well-prepared.

But nothing could prepare any of them for the shocking revelations to come that reveal the true depth of the kidnappers’ malicious plot.

On trial for the murder of his daughter, Howell has little left to live for. Eddie is desperate to achieve justice for both his client and his daughter. But the kidnappers’ scheme is far from over.

The third in Steve Cavanagh’s Eddie Flynn series, ‘The Liar’ plunges immediately into mystery and danger before we catch up with Eddie late one night in his office, on the cusp of being drawn into two new legal wrangles. Combining the suspense of legal drama with action and the labyrinthine narrative of a psychological thriller, with multiple emotional punches throughout, the plot hurtles from one twist to the next in a breathless race against time to save lives and see justice done.

Eddie continues to be an endearing, flawed and fascinating character, the story once again told from his perspective, his history and skills as a con man proving to be as crucial as his legal skills and knowledge. Eddie’s family also make brief appearances, while we delve deeper into his relationship with his mentor Judge Harry Ford, whose past comes back to haunt him through this case. Both the action sequences and the courtroom scenes are brilliantly realised, pushing the narrative onwards and keeping the high pace balanced, while multiple key characters feature throughout the ever-evolving plot as the truth is revealed layer by layer.

Once again, Steve Cavanagh has delivered a riveting thriller that you just don’t want to put down, culminating in a satisfying and emotional conclusion – one that is both thrilling and reflective. Next in the series is ‘Thirteen’, which promises to be yet another enthralling case.



View all my reviews
Visit me on Facebook
Follow me on Twitter
Follow me on Instagram

Persuader by Lee Child

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A ghost from the past returns to haunt Jack Reacher.

Thwarting a kidnap attempt brings Reacher into the inner sanctum of the Beck family and husband and father Zachary’s criminal enterprise.

But all is not as it first appears: Zachary Beck may be little more than a puppet on a string, he and his family held to ransom by a bigger and more ruthless villain.

Reacher is on a personal mission, a vendetta to right wrongs of the past and finish something he started many years ago.

‘Persuader’ is the seventh novel in Lee Child’s series featuring Jack Reacher, once again approached from a slightly different perspective to previous entries. As we dive into the action in the opening chapter's attempted kidnap scene, we are left wondering what has happened to the Reacher we've got to know in the previous six novels. As we discover what led Reacher to where we meet him again, it becomes clear that he has unfinished business and is entirely driven to correct this error.

In a rapidly evolving plot, multiple layers are at play as Reacher delves deeper into the circumstances surrounding what may be one of his most personal missions explored in the series so far. Flashbacks to Reacher's army days also feature throughout the narrative, the first time in the series we've delved into his history in this depth. One of his subordinates, Dominique Kohl, was probably one of my favourite characters in this installment, both her character and story vividly realised in her relatively few scenes.

I particularly enjoyed both the gothic elements woven into the plot - the secluded house, the long shadows of the past haunting the present, the family secrets and strife; and the isolated coastal setting, the cold ferocity of the ocean its own force beside the machinations of the criminals and those fighting against them. Once again, Lee Child delivers a gripping novel that explores a deeper layer to Reacher’s vigilante justice and never-ending habit of being drawn into wrongs that need righting in his vagabond’s journey across America. As always, we are left eagerly awaiting his next adventure.

Brutal and tragic, ‘Persuader’ is another action-packed thriller that delivers justice in Reacher’s own personal style.



View all my reviews
Follow me on Facebook
Follow me on Instagram
Follow me on Threads
Follow me on Twitter

The Enemy by Lee Child

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A gripping military crime thriller.

On New Year's Day, just after midnight, Jack Reacher receives a call advising a general has been found dead in a motel.

Though apparently the result of natural causes, the general's death triggers a chain of events that results in multiple homicides.

Fighting a system intent on a cover-up, Reacher pursues the trail across the US and Europe, uncovering a conspiracy that reaches the upper echelons of the military.

'The Enemy' is the eighth novel in the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child, and prequel to the previous seven books. Taking us back to 1990 and the beginning of a new year and new decade, we meet a younger Reacher, not yet thirty, still a Military Police Major in the US Army, over seven years before we first met him in 'Killing Floor' as the drifter with no fixed abode. An action-packed, thrilling mystery; this is the beginning of Reacher’s journey to becoming a ghost.

With a complex plot involving multiple deaths miles apart and a missing agenda claimed never to have existed, we follow Reacher’s determined efforts to uncover the truth, despite resistance by his colleagues and superiors, as it becomes apparent a military conspiracy is in play, someone manoeuvring key military personnel for motives unknown in response to events on the world stage – the Soviet Union is crumbling, thus change is expected to follow in the US military. Beneath the honour, the patriotism, the comradery and loyalty, there is a dark and sinister underbelly, somewhere Reacher has all too often had to wade in his role as a military police officer. The novel also touches upon the institutional prejudice within the military – homophobia, racism and sexism seemingly hardwired, sowing unease into the lives of those suffering this discrimination.

With heightened emotional stakes, we learn a little more about Reacher's relationship with his brother Joe as they journey to France to visit their mother, whom they discover to be gravely ill. This is a poignant and often moving chapter in the saga; already we can feel the sense of Reacher’s detachment, dislocation and loneliness that comes with being posted at various bases in the US and Europe, while the bond he develops with Lieutenant Summer adds another emotional layer, something quite affecting about a genuine connection that circumstances dictate to be so fleeting.

At this stage of his life, Reacher still believes in the Army and the system; it has been his life, having grown up with his father in the military, and he has remained loyal and dedicated, but he discovers, as if often the case with institutions and those that wield its power, there is no loyalty in return. It's tragic to witness the disintegration of this faith and his growing disillusionment, this investigation setting him on the path to how he will ultimately come to walk away from his life several years later.

Lee Child delivers another gripping and entertaining novel, once again approaching from a different angle, this time going back in time – it’s always fascinating to explore events that led to a future we’ve already explored. There are already several more prequels dotted throughout the series, set between 'The Enemy' and 'Killing Floor', and I look forward to delving further into Reacher's past as the series progresses.



View all my reviews
Follow me on Facebook
Follow me on Instagram
Follow me on Threads
Follow me on Twitter

Falling by T.J. Newman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


An adrenaline-fueled edge-of-your-seat thrill-ride.

Bill Hoffman boards a flight he’s been requested to pilot at the eleventh hour, shortly afterwards discovering his family has been kidnapped.

He is presented with an impossible choice – allow the terrorist to murder his family or crash the plane into an as yet undisclosed target.

With only limited time and limited resources, Bill must find a way to warn others of the threat and save his family without flying the plane into oblivion.

‘Falling’ is the debut novel by T.J. Newman, a relentlessly-paced action thriller that follows the plight of Flight 416 and efforts to save the souls onboard from the threat of a terror plot. Rather than hijack the plane, the terrorists have hijacked the pilot, holding his family to ransom in an insidious game that masks the world-altering tragedy that motivates their evil plan. We follow the crisis from multiple view-points – with pilot Bill in the cockpit, his wife Carrie and their children trapped by the terrorist who gained entry to their home, flight attendant Jo and her colleagues and the passengers, and FBI agent Theo and his fellow agents, plus glimpses of Air Traffic Control as the situation escalates.

Newman delivers a gripping novel, a deftness of touch to the prose propelling us through the action-packed plot, moments of suspense and emotional tension ratcheting throughout multiple twists and turns. The aviation procedural detail is fascinating, lending the action an authentic edge – aviation thrillers instantly becoming Newman’s niche thanks to her previous life as a flight attendant. Vivid imagery and propulsive action and dialogue leap off the page - this is a movie in prose, and would make an engrossing film (which is reportedly in the works). Jo and Theo perhaps proved to be my favourite characters, while Bill's determination not to choose between two truly evil options and instead try to find the right way against the odds demonstrated an admirable strength of character.

Despite being thoroughly entertaining, the novel, of course, has a dark heart. The terror attacks on September 11th, 2001, scarred the world, and changed both aviation and international security forever. The war on terror became a new and terrifying conflict, one that we continue to feel to this day. As for genocide and territorial conflicts across the globe, this remains as timely as ever. In the Western world, we often don't realise how blessed we are to know peace, something that holds heavy resonance in the novel as we brush against the periphery of true horror.

Packed with heart-wrenching moments and thrilling action sequences, ‘Falling’ is an intense summer blockbuster that may encourage you to wonder if perhaps anyone can be the hero.



View all my reviews
Follow me on Facebook
Follow me on Instagram
Follow me on Threads
Follow me on Twitter

The Black Mountain by Kate Mosse

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


A thrilling historical mystery.

May 1706. Ana lives in a small coastal town on the island of Tenerife, in the shadow of a mighty volcano.

No one believes the volcano will ever erupt. But when Ana notices strange changes in the environment, she senses they are in grave danger.

Yet no one will listen to her, and her determination to raise the alarm only puts her in greater danger at the hands of those who wish for her warnings to be silenced.

‘The Black Mountain’ is an historical novella by Kate Mosse, a blend of murder mystery, disaster action adventure, and coming of age story, set in Tenerife in 1706 and exploring the events surrounding a volcanic eruption, centring on the experience of a young Spanish woman, Ana, and her close family and friends. An enjoyable, fast-paced read with some vividly described scenes; Mosse narrates a tale fraught with danger, grief, corruption, and tragedy, in which one’s faith in humanity is shaken and renewed in equal measure.

Ana is an endearing character, reminiscent of the lead characters of childhood adventure stories. Courageous and strong-willed, she is both the moral heart and hero of the story, currently dealing with her immense grief at the loss of her father, whom it was believed took his own life. Ana comes to believe her father was murdered, her quest to solve this mystery sidetracked by the threat of the volcano. Ana senses the heavy aura in the air and the animals taking cover before the earth begins to tremor, but the powerful men of the town have no desire to listen to her, and so it falls to her, along with her brothers and friends, to do what little they can.

The novella is set against the backdrop of a true historical event, the eruption of the Trevejo volcano, the eponymous black mountain, in May 1706, which changed the course of history for the island of Tenerife. While there were no recorded human fatalities, the port we visit in the story was buried by lava flows and later relegated to a fishing village, leading to an economic shift following the disaster. Also abounding are tales of churches and a convent that the lava dared not touch, while other buildings were lost.

I particularly loved the touch of folklore of the legend of the Devil living inside the volcano; it perfectly illustrates the ominous threat that is both constant but distant and not quite believed, a throwback to an ancient explanation for the roars that escape into the night and the magma that rises as if from the pits of Hell. Though incredibly subtle, it plays into the concept of justice explored in the subtext of the novella, whether legal, moral, natural or divine.

A short, entertaining novella, ‘The Black Mountain’ is perfect for a one-sitting summer read, appealing to adults and young adults alike, and serves as a great appetiser for Kate Mosse’s work.



Follow me on Instagram
View all my reviews
Follow me on Facebook
Follow me on Threads