Thomas Blume, a former New York detective, now resident in Hackney after the death of his family. When what should have been a simple security gig goes badly wrong, he finds himself caught in a political affair, trying to make up for a mistake that could cost two lives, and worse, suspecting the people behind it might be ones he has encountered before.

Although the initial opening may seem slow it is actually packed with a lot of information that becomes relevant later in the story. It’s fast-paced, and I found myself genuinely wanted to know what happened next. I will also say it is tightly written, with reuse of established plot elements and devices rather than introducing new threads. There was one co-incidence that had me thinking that it was remarkably lucky and a bit of a stretch, but two pages later I didn’t care because I was too wrapped up in the story.

While this is a standalone story, there is a lot to tie this in to the rest of the books in the series. This isn’t entirely positive if you haven’t read the first book (and I haven’t), as it includes a few deliberate open ends, and an epilogue in New York that is largely disconnected from the story. On the other hand, I enjoyed the book, the mystery was largely beliveable and the action scenes were tense.

Action fans and thriller readers should give this tense thriller a look, although they might want to start with the first book in the series. The only reason its a three is because I haven’t read the early one.