Vengeance is Mine!

Robert D. Smith set himself a challenge to combine his love of writing with his years of experience in uniform and as a specialist. He served in the military, as well as spending time as an officer in the Metropolitan Police, and carried out many lines of work including surveillance, intelligence work and engaging in joint operations with the Security Services.

Vengeance is Mine! draws from Smith’s experiences, following Detective Mark Kidder, a member of Alpha team – a secretive, armed police surveillance unit from ‘The Dept’. The team is recruited by MI5 to track down Jason Phillips, an ex-British Army soldier who, after being left wounded and traumatised in Bosnia, has become a mercenary soldier and a suspected terrorist, and is now based in London.

Smith also explores the Balkan Wars of the 1990s as Alpha team discovers their target’s association with a legendary Bosnian Colonel ­– a hero-turned-mercenary with blood links in the UK – who has sworn to wreak vengeance on a renegade militia who ambushed and tortured his father.

The perceived addition of academic and class snobbery ensures the relationship between MI5 and ‘The Dept’ is not a smooth one, and the two organisations are pitted against each other. Pride, status, secrecy, inter-departmental and agency rivalries foster mistrust and jealousy in this thrilling story as dangerous secrets are revealed and Alpha team are forced to put their lives at risk.