John Parker is a Graduate-qualified English/Spanish Teacher, owner and director of CHAT ENGLISH, an English Language Centre in Avilés on the north coast of Spain . A voracious reader, he has particularly loved horror fiction for many years.
The AK-47, also called the Kalashnikov Model 1947 is a Soviet assault rifle and is possibly the most widely used shoulder weapon in the world. The initials AK represent “Avtomat Kalashnikova”, Russian for “automatic Kalashnikov,” after Mikhail Kalashnikov, who designed the accepted version of the weapon in 1947. This novel follows the path of one such rifle from the factory at Ishevsk , where it is manufactured in 1957 ,to present-day Marseille.
The main thrust of the story is of a Muslim girl called Zeinab from Dewsbury who has been recruited to the terrorist call and her relationship with a simple lorry driver/boyfriend, Andy Knight. What she does not know is that Andy is an undercover agent who has made himself her trusted friend. And Andy and Zeinab are becoming emotionally attached which will cause many problems for the normally “professional as they come” Andy.
Meanwhile Andy’s two handlers, Pegs and Gough are given the difficult task of keeping track of him whilst running the operation. Their job is by no means an easy one. When the operation has to move across from Manchester to the port of Marseille in France, things become more complicated as we meet drug dealer Hamid and his crippled brother Karym , the latter an expert on the workings of the Kalashnikov though he has never actually fired one. The police do not want Andy’s handlers there as they believe outsiders will only upset the status quo in the city. Many other characters appear, Samson the legendary police sniper and old time gangsters, Frenchman, Tooth and Englishman, Crab to name a few.
Seymour is famous for his ability to create stories which are about people rather than just writing fantastic thrillers full of non-stop action. His writing here is detailed and really gets into the heads of the main characters, their thoughts, their ambitions and their desires. This book will appeal to those that like a literary approach to thrillers. It is a long read and, at times, a bit slow for my tastes but it manages to maintain interest until the end. Seymour’s followers will be more than satisfied while those who pick the book up hoping for an action-fest not so much.
