Adam Colclough lives and works in the West Midlands, he writes regularly for a number of websites, one day he will get round to writing a book for someone else to review.
Recruited into an off-the-books branch of the British Secret Services - Josie Chapman is sent undercover to infiltrate a people smuggling ring operating out of a small town in California. A favour to the local FBI office and a live training exercise for a newbie asset, what could go possibly wrong?
Plenty.
Her instinct to do the right thing leads Josie to step in help a victim of the trafficking ring brings her to the attention of a ruthless crime boss known as ‘The Director’ and the corrupt cops who do his bidding. Out on a limb, and maybe out of her depth, Josie’s only hoped of survival is to confront the network head on and take it down.
This is a second outing for a central character who made her debut in No Mercy and has the makings of a satisfying series. Chapman is, perhaps, the ideal action hero for an age that is sceptical about such figures, capable of taking out a bad guy with a single karate chop but not afflicted with the arrogance of her predecessors.
The plot for all its epic reach, the corruption she uncovers runs through the officialdom of a small town to embrace people who hold real power, does not have super villains from central casting at its heart. The bad guys Connor has Chapman face act in was motivated by a mix of spite, greed and weakness that is all too believable.
If a replacement is needed for the increasingly creaky Bond franchise, then Josie Chapman might just be the character to fill the gap. A thoroughly modern agent inhabiting a more realistic world with fewer gadgets, and a lot more genuine thrills.
