The former SAS operative is at his blistering best in his latest edge of the seat thriller, Traitor. Chris Ryan brings to bear his extensive experience in the most dangerous of circumstances to conjure an unputdownable offering that has more twists and turns than hairpin binds on a hilly path!

Sergeant Major Luke Carter is dispatched to Campbell Barracks at Perth in Australia on a recruitment mission, by his bosses at the British Secret Service. The mission: to train a bunch of elite Ukrainian counter insurgency forces in the forests of Poland. Carter’s search leads him to Sergeant Quade Dempsy, a massive hunk of a man who knows more about drones than most of the drone specialists on the Planet. Dempsey and Carter then track down the reclusive Steve Lazarides. Of Greek Croat heritage, Lazarides is a marksman par excellence with an ability to shoot the backside of a pig from six hundred metres away. The Crack squad is complete with the addition of Karl Beach, aka the Food Monster, Carter’s fellow Blade. Expert in the use of explosives, Beach, a South London lad with a vulgar sense of humour, distinguishes himself from his peers and compatriots due to an appetite, which can only be termed legendary.

The quartet gets a rude shock when due to a breach in the Ukrainian Secret Service, the training gets converted into a series of hit jobs. Carter and Co are tasked with a series of hit jobs designed to take out some of the closest confidants of Vladimir Putin. The executions would not just bring the Russia-Ukraine conflict to a close but would also potentially result in a regime change with the overthrowing of Putin. Aiding them in these perilous missions is the thirty-seven-year-old Yulia Volkova. Born in Nizhny Novgorod, Yulia is the daughter of General Nikolayevich Zorin, the overall commander of the Russian forces in Ukraine who has been killed under mysterious circumstances. Yulia herself is a former employee of the FSB in Moscow.

Why is the daughter of a pro-Russian military general interested in overseeing the demise of some of the most powerful figures in the Russian politburo? Why couldn’t the job be handed over to a specialised task force from the SAS? Carter is plagued with doubts and dollops of pessimism, but he knows that his team has no say in any of these matters of political intrigue.

The mission takes the assassins to Minsk and Switzerland. Betrayals and bureaucracy, connivance and chaos, subterfuge and sagacity compete and contrive to make the lives of the team an absolute hell.

Would the team be able to successfully accomplish its most dangerous mission ever and come out unscathed? Or would they be following a path that has no benevolent ending?

Traitor is a one sitting read that takes its readers on an absolute roller coaster ride. Every page is a blend of intrigue and incredulity. The typical Chris Ryan imprimatur once again manifests itself in a gob smacking climax that is sure to cause a poleaxing effect!

This book is worthy of a movie adaptation!

A tense, twisty thriller, the type of which we have come to expect from Chris Ryan.
Detailed but not enough to make the reader glaze over, the realism shines through in order to be just this side of believable.
Ending was a little abrupt but the rest of the book was so good, the writer can be forgiven for that.
A good use of my time, very satisfying.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and author for this eARC.

This is a very exciting thriller of a read, full of atmosphere and suspense. I was trying to work out who the traitor was throughout.
I liked Luke Carter, the main character and enjoyed following him and his team as they take on dangerous missions. The authors writing is good, the story flows well and the cliff hanger chapter endings just made me want to know what would happen next. I'd definitely recommend this if you like thrillers.

4 stars

Great story from Chris Ryan. Full of action and deceit.
Really easy to read and hard to put down.
Looking forward to more from Chris Ryan

Chris Ryan is a decorated SAS hero, so he writes from experience and is, therefore, realistic. This latest book had me up late because I had to finish it. Superb thriller and highly recommended. Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for giving me a copy of the book.