Spartan
"... if you love high octane action and want to read a 'movie-on-the-page' then I would advise giving ‘Spartan’ a go."
Synopsis:
Will Cochrane is ‘Spartan’, a ‘super-human soldier’, specially trained to get the job done quickly and without leaving a trace behind. Will is given the mission to flush out ‘Megiddo’ – a man who had a great presence in Bosnia and now is strongest and most feared man in Iran. Now there is a new way of getting the man to come out of the shadows and into the open. Lana Beseisu knew Megiddo from Sarajevo and is the only woman who can identify the man himself. To make their plan work, Will needs to put Lana straight into the firing line of the man they are after.
Travelling from country to country, Megiddo appears to be leading Will a merry dance as his lack of appearance frustrates Cochrane and his well-laid plans. And then Will learns something new about the man he is chasing – and the fact that their paths are inexorably linked makes the chase even more personal for Will Cochrane.
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Review:
This is the first thriller from an ex-MI6 operative, dealing with what he knows best in a nail-biting thriller that grabs you from the first page. Will Cochrane is a killing-machine and the body count is already mounting from Chapter One when the action starts in New York’s Central Park. You can see that Dunn draws on his past experience to give his readers a rip-roaring thriller that really does grip you by the throat. In essence, ‘Spartan’ reads a bit like a modern version of the film ‘300’: a lot of Alpha males running around beating their chests and killing people with any weapon that comes to hand. Opinion is divided on ‘Spartan’ and I realise that the writing can at times be clunky, but this is something a writer can grow into and perfect. If you’re looking for a ‘le Carre’ type of novel where the nature of the spy is more cerebral than throwing themselves out of windows, etc then this isn’t the book for you. However, if you love high octane action and want to read a 'movie-on-the-page' then I would advise giving ‘Spartan’ a go. This type of book is not my usual fare, so I feel I can give an unbiased view. I really enjoyed ‘Spartan’ and although I am certain that the action was speeded up for dramatic effect I thought this was a very promising start to what I feel, with a bit more polishing, could become a very popular series indeed. Lee Child has a splash blurb on the front cover – and he may now well have to make room for Matthew Dunn now he’s on the scene!