A good thriller starts with a hook, something to get your immediate attention. Trouble is, with Adam Hamdy's thrillers, the hook never lets the reader go. It's blistering action right to the very end. Until I read the author's note at the end of Red Wolves, I thought the plot to be a passing parody of the pandemic, or maybe the virus being the inspiration behind the patches and cannisters. However it apperas to have been started way before the pandemic hit but finished during it. This gave rise to the most irritating repetition I've ever come across, the coronavirus test. Please, please edit it out, it absolutely spoiled the book. I don't know if I speak for others but the frequent nods to the pandemic are not something I want to read about, more like I want to forget it, expunge it, nuke it! Now the plot relied on some very dodgy tech and it's clear Adam didn't read my previous review of Black 13. Tracking devices buried deep in your thigh won't work because of RF absorption, bugging devices in the skirting board or under carpet don't yield good results, additionally bugs have to be larger than the battery which powers them! Having said that, I thought the patch which both destroys, yet saves, to be a masterstroke. It would have been a five star review but because of the covid tests and dodgy tech, I'm knocking a point off.

Having read Black 13 I was pleased to be able to read this, the follow on book. Scott Pearce is back, no longer with the support of MI6, still a man on a mission. This time he needs to work with a few old friends to try to combat a global threat. He doesn’t know who he can trust, or who is behind this threat, just that they have far reaching contacts and can cripple a nation.
Scott’s character is flawed but human, with integrity and determination. He’s definitely someone you’d want on your side. The story is well written, fast paced and edge of the seat reading. It’s quite frightening how plausible the story is, what with the technological advances, mans greed and desperation for money and power, and that there are people out there who will do anything for the right price. Sometimes you feel things like this couldn’t be possible, but unfortunately they could. Scary read, but in a good way. I look forward to Scott’s next mission.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

A follow up to the rather good Black 13. This is a fast moving thriller as a small group of operatives battle rather dangerous bad guys.
Scott Pierce is a on a solo mission but he ends up working with old friends when their interests coincide and a mysterious benefactor offers help.
The team are rather good and do not fit the usual special operator model. Pierce is talented but fallible, Leila is in a wheelchair but conflicted and smart, Woolerton is a more generic special ops type and shifty French Brigitte completes the diverse team.
A global conspiracy to import lethal and controlling drugs is what they find themselves involved in, throw in corrupt cops, drugs cartels and bio weapons and you have all the ingredients for the thrills this book delivers.
Adam Hamdy is a talented writer and delivers all you could want in a techno thriller. There is another book to come and I am already looking forward to it. Thanks to NetGalley for an early view of this.

This is Adam Hamdy's follow up to Black Thirteen which introduced us to ex-military, ex-spook, mixed race Scott Pearce, the central all action protagonist of this series. Pearce has opted to carry out a private investigation into a Thai man from the previous book, a connection that is to have him working for billionaire, Huxley Blaine Carter, a man with resources and contacts one can only dream of. The only problem is that Pearce does not trust him, nor the former French DGCE intelligence woman, Brigitte Attali, that he has encountered previously who is now on his team. The Syrian, the disabled and traumatised Leila Nuhman, the online internet whizz is back and joining the team is Kyle Wollerton, struggling to come to terms with the end of his marriage and feeling the despair of not seeing his children.

The team find themselves investigating the breakout escape of 2 prisoners from a notorious Cairo prison that results in mass deaths by an unknown and undetectable toxin. This leads them to split up, with Brigitte and Kyle making their way to China which turns out to have devastating consequences, and for Pearce and Leila going to Seattle in search of Ziad Malek, one of the Cairo prisoners that escaped. They find themselves in the midst of deadly American drug wars, with corrupt cops, stolen drugs, the powerful drug crime family of the Chechan Deni Salamov and the existence of the sinister and ruthless Red Wolves. They know they are in the right place as mass deaths and murders occur, replicating what happened in Cairo. Pearce finds himself in the most challenging, stressful and deadly of missions with his team, racing against time to prevent a global nightmare of a catastrophe.

Hamdy illustrates how the vulnerable can be radicalised in this dark and exciting thriller, and gives us a amoral villainous enemy that is willing to hold the world to ransom by any means necessary, using blackmail, and willing to accept a huge civilian death toll. This is a fast paced, nail biting read, with short, snappy chapters, well plotted, with plenty of suspense, and great characters, I particularly liked Leila, so desperate to find her sister, the only family she has left, and Brigitte grew on me, particularly after the horrifying circumstances she finds herself in. Many thanks to Pan Macmillan for an ARC.

Ground level action with a plot that could destabilise nations, just how thrillers should read.

I liked the nature of the terrorists controlling devices and the ideas that went with them, giving a killer a colourful sobriquet is always a good idea, taken together, it made for a good backdrop to the actual plot. Beyond the protagonist, there weren't any other clear cut characters, there's no script immunity for anyone else in the story, and there were plenty of twists and turns. Interesting (and over the top) villains with maniacal plans, and the inevitable betrayals and drama that goes with them.

Well paced, short chapters and plenty of cliffhangers, good action sequences, and no flinching from the emotional consequences of what characters involved in espionage get up to.

I liked this, and will be looking into the other books by Adam Hamdy

I loved Black 13 so couldn't wait for Red Wolves to be released.
Scott Pearce is back and boy it doesn't take him long to get into trouble.
Prison escapes, drugs and of course a deadly assassin.
What more do you want from an adventure novel?