What do you think?
Favour the Dead
'Smith is back and hits gold with his most gripping adventure yet.' Bear GryllsMy name is Christian McKie and a few months ago I was killed in military action in Sierra Leone.I am undercover with the only people who know I am alive.We were all killed in action.And now we turn death to our advantage.We are the Regiment of the Dead.
- GenresMilitary Fiction
376 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 10, 2013
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 2, 2016
"Is it just me, or is everything in this country out to get you....eat you, shoot you, spike you, drench you, burn you..?"
British SAS officers Christian McKie and Danny "Rags" Raglan, are "officially" dead, Missing in Action, which allows them to be deployed on missions other units cannot handle for political reasons. Set in Somalia, "the job" is to infiltrate the al-Shabaab, a militia group recruiting young men through mosques in the UK to train as jihadis, and to take their leader. But nothing runs to plan and they are imprisoned by an Ethiopean army unit, led by a brutal US Colonel.
Mackenzie Smith delivers a gripping military-action page-turner, with characters endearing to a wider readership, with heart-stopping moments when McKie is forced to show his loyalty to the leader by mutilating a woman before she is executed. Smith' s descriptions of the unforgiving terrain and barbaric practices are lightened by moments between the two men, drawing lines in the dirt and squeezing goat droppings into chess pieces to while away hours of captivity.
An enjoyable read and I give it 4.5 stars.
British SAS officers Christian McKie and Danny "Rags" Raglan, are "officially" dead, Missing in Action, which allows them to be deployed on missions other units cannot handle for political reasons. Set in Somalia, "the job" is to infiltrate the al-Shabaab, a militia group recruiting young men through mosques in the UK to train as jihadis, and to take their leader. But nothing runs to plan and they are imprisoned by an Ethiopean army unit, led by a brutal US Colonel.
Mackenzie Smith delivers a gripping military-action page-turner, with characters endearing to a wider readership, with heart-stopping moments when McKie is forced to show his loyalty to the leader by mutilating a woman before she is executed. Smith' s descriptions of the unforgiving terrain and barbaric practices are lightened by moments between the two men, drawing lines in the dirt and squeezing goat droppings into chess pieces to while away hours of captivity.
An enjoyable read and I give it 4.5 stars.
August 1, 2016
Hard to be original in the space that is probably owned by the likes of Andy McNab, but somehow Mackenzie Smith does it. I think the key here is that he never seems to let the plot go in the conventional direction that you might be expecting, this was very true of his first novel and the principle is repeated here.
This is a follow up to "Who pays the Piper" but you could probably get away without reading that first. With this we have an interesting premise, a "Regiment of the Dead", guys who appear to be no longer with us but still work in the shadows. A geat premise, but the reality is the 'regiment' is just a handful of guys into which our hero from the first book is initiated. His first mission is to replace a couple of radicalised Brits and go, with a colleague, into a mission of integration and assassination. I have to say I had my doubts about how two white Brits (one of whom is pretty middle class) could replace a couple of muslims from Leicester, but let us move on. Oh, and before I do, some minor stuff about them, once amongst their new "friends" there seems no inclination to pray or act as if radicalised. But now to move on,
Things do not go well and our good guys find themselves in a spot of bother and that is where the book really works, no clean cut solutions and a plot that is hard to predict. This is where the author comes to life, putting his characters in situations and then not following your expectations.
An author that needs some polishing but there is something really good in his thrillers.
This is a follow up to "Who pays the Piper" but you could probably get away without reading that first. With this we have an interesting premise, a "Regiment of the Dead", guys who appear to be no longer with us but still work in the shadows. A geat premise, but the reality is the 'regiment' is just a handful of guys into which our hero from the first book is initiated. His first mission is to replace a couple of radicalised Brits and go, with a colleague, into a mission of integration and assassination. I have to say I had my doubts about how two white Brits (one of whom is pretty middle class) could replace a couple of muslims from Leicester, but let us move on. Oh, and before I do, some minor stuff about them, once amongst their new "friends" there seems no inclination to pray or act as if radicalised. But now to move on,
Things do not go well and our good guys find themselves in a spot of bother and that is where the book really works, no clean cut solutions and a plot that is hard to predict. This is where the author comes to life, putting his characters in situations and then not following your expectations.
An author that needs some polishing but there is something really good in his thrillers.
August 2, 2016
Christian McKie, the main protagonist from Who Pays The Piper, is now officially dead. He is invited to join a black ops organization known as the Regiment of the Dead.
The action set pieces were exciting and very well written, and the scenes of torture were suitably unpleasant, but the dialogue was a bit clumpy in places and the narrative dragged a little on occasions.
I finished this while we were on holiday in Somerset.
The action set pieces were exciting and very well written, and the scenes of torture were suitably unpleasant, but the dialogue was a bit clumpy in places and the narrative dragged a little on occasions.
I finished this while we were on holiday in Somerset.
April 5, 2014
I started off enjoying this one then it just really seemed to drag on Olin the middle, also that was far too much convenient coincidence/Deus ex machina going on.
This is the first book in the series I've read, trusting reviewers that say it works well as a standalone. It really doesn't, you constantly feel frustrate with the back story references.
This is the first book in the series I've read, trusting reviewers that say it works well as a standalone. It really doesn't, you constantly feel frustrate with the back story references.
September 8, 2014
Fantastic book, loved it.
recommend to any person who loves thriller and army like books. So freaking Awesome.
Mackenzie smith.. job well done
recommend to any person who loves thriller and army like books. So freaking Awesome.
Mackenzie smith.. job well done
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews