The third book in James Swallow’s high-tech thriller series featuring ex-MI6 agent Marc Dane and the Rubicon Group, Ghost provides another relevant, contemporary story as Dane tackles a mysterious hacker collective tapping into the world’s digital weaknesses. Marc is mid-mission gathering information on a link to the sinister Combine when sudden new orders arrive, sending him to Malta to investigate an unusually public assassination. Who the victim is, why he was killed and what it means for Rubicon all come to light as Marc, Lucy and co. chase digital ghosts and fight back from a devastating betrayal.

If this is your entry point to the series, you can expect a fast-paced, high-octane, jet-setting spy adventure that’s bang up to date with cool (but very credible) technology and a topical, believable threat. If you’ve read Nomad and Exile you’ll know what to expect, as it maintains a familiar style and tone to what’s gone before…but it’s not just a carbon copy. Three books in, the characters are now sufficiently familiar and well established that Swallow can dig a little deeper than before, spending more time with other members of the Rubicon group and exploring the increasingly important relationships between them. There’s still the pace and compelling plot that you’d expect, but there’s plenty of room for the characters too.

Dane himself is still adapting to his new life, figuring out what he’s supposed to be doing and why – he’s growing in confidence, but still scraping his way through tight spots by virtue of equal parts skill and luck. Swallow is continuing to play it slowly with Dane, using each adventure to move him forwards bit by bit rather than rushing towards personal resolutions or unbelievable increases in skills or aptitude. Likewise with the overarching narrative, which in general sees the Rubicon group pitted against the Combine but this time veers away from that arc a little. It’s an effective way of keeping the series’ momentum going, focusing on a little bit of world building rather than always pushing forward with a single story arc.

The main threat behind the plot – a driven, determined antagonist using the digital world to manipulate the physical world – continues the theme Swallow set with the previous two instalments of feeling incredibly topical and relevant. Where this differs is that it’s more about brains than brawn for both sides, with Dane and Rubicon facing off against an enemy as tech-savvy and well equipped as themselves. In Swallow’s hands it’s still a plot of impressive scale, feeling suitably world-threatening to keep the stakes high, rattling along at a suitably fast pace and hopping from location to location to maintain momentum and excitement. There’s a lot to enjoy here – like the others it’s not trying to be groundbreaking, but just does everything you want a modern thriller to do…and does it really well.

3rd nerve-wrecking thriller in the Marc Dane series

Marc Dane returned in the new novel, tackling the cyber-terrorism before the world plunged into the new war. He is also known as the 21st century OO7.

Dane investigated the murder in Malta with Kara Wei and uncovered the ‘darknet’ plotting to hack the world web, i.e., the hackers threatened to switch off the power grids in some nations, paralysing everything – transports, banking and hospitals. They would cause mass murders of millions.

“Madrigal” was the leader of the cyber terrorists and Solomon (Marc and Kara’s big boss) tasked his team to prevent Madrigal.

The plot was to bring into the lethal world war, betrayal, conspiracies and corruption.

This book made me holding my breath and biting my nails. I look forward to the next novel by James Swallow.

Caesar 13

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

This is a high octane thriller featuring agent Marc Dane who was also in James Swallow’s earlier two books, Nomad and Exile. If you like fast moving adrenaline fuelled stories this is definitely the book for you. Ghost also contains lots of techno hacking strands to the plot as Marc is part agent and part technical, computer geek making this a very modern and up to date novel.
Ghost is about a hacking group who want to take down various cities including San Francisco by sending a computer worm into their infrastructure. The hack sees many people lose their lives as trains and cars crash. Marc and his sidekick Lucy are in a race against time to track down the hacking group and stop the mayhem it is causing. Marc is now working for Rubicon run by Ecko Solomon which is a secret organisation set up to do good in the world.
This is an entertaining thriller which keeps the reader gripped right until the end. If you enjoy books like Orphan X, Jason Bourne or Jack Reacher this novel will certainly captivate you. I’ve read all 3 books in the series and in my opinion this helps with understanding as there are several references to previous events.
Thanks to NetGalley and Zaffre books for my advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ghost is the new novel by James Swallow featuring Marc Dane, the hero of Nomad and Exile.
I found Ghost to be full of action and the main character , Dane, just as good as Jason Bourne and Jack Bauer.
The storyline is great and very hard to put down. The "just one more chapter" adage certainly applies here. I devoured the book in one sitting. Definitely cannot wait for more from this author.
Thankyou to Netgalley and the publisher for being able to read an advanced copy..