Monday, January 5, 2015

BOOK REVIEW: "Never Say Die" by Bill Carson

Nick Harland has teamed up with Andy Ryan, a special forces/ MI5 operator and the pair are tasked with tracking down a rogue SAS soldier who is on the loose and creating havoc across London in revenge for his unjust imprisonment. But the destruction that he is causing is all part of an elaborate deception which is designed to mask his true intentions. Harland and Ryan are now in a race against time to find him before he carries out one of the most daring, outrageous and audacious crimes of the 21st century. 
Along with all the mayhem and tension created by the hunt for the SAS man there is a secondary story running parallel with the main one and this part of the story is unconnected to the main theme and remains so until the last chapter. Who is the mysterious unknown man found in a field in Essex with a gunshot wound to his head? The unconscious man is barely alive and is rushed to hospital where he undergoes emergency brain surgery and after a long period of recuperation he wakes from the coma. 
The police are anxious to interview him as in the field where he was found were a dozen dead bodies riddled with bullet holes. They don't get the chance to interrogate to him as he decides to abscond from hospital. The stranger has near total memory loss and has no clue who he is or why he'd been shot and the search is now on to find his past life? And he's anxious to find out why someone wanted him dead?

As an avid Doyle reader and NCIS watcher (not to mention the BBC's MI:5 starring Richard Armitage), I love mysteries set around a lot of action and suspense. Never Say Die by Bill Carson delivers a whole lot of suspense and danger within these pages.
Nick Harland is a likable character, Andy I could go either way. This is not really a character-driven story, but rather a plot-driven story. I mean that as a compliment. Rarely can you find a great spy novel driven more by plot than by the spies themselves. Carson wrote a great thriller with interesting components not usually seen together in the same book.
The reader is enthralled and intrigued by the mysterious man who has no memory. The reader is appalled yet can't help but be sympathetic to Steve Dark, the assassin gone rogue. And you certainly will wonder what on Earth one has to do with the other. A great mystery keeps you guessing and o  your toes, and Never Say Die does just that.
A great plot, well-written with enough mystery and action to keep you reading well into the night make Mr. Carson a writer you HAVE to check out!

4/5--a page-turner!



Purchase Never Say Die via:

Amazon

Goodreads

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