Terrorism – nigeladamsbookworm

If you’ve missed the type of book that Robert Ludlum wrote back in the 70s and 80s, or some of the early Tom Clancy novels, then this book set firmly in the modern day is definitely for you.

Hunted is set against the backdrop of an imminent American Presidential Election, very thinly disguised and based on Trump v Harris, and hints that one of them, or at the least their supporters, are trying to sway the election by setting up terrorist attacks on US soil.

Young vulnerable Asian women are being groomed to join a US Terror Cell, but they are not being told the truth about the severity of there actions, or the cause they are fighting for.

Somebody wants to make it look as though there is a Muslim Terror Cell working in America.

After an explosion in a Mall FBI Agent Shreya Mistry manages to see CCTV footage of the alleged attacker, but she looks like she’s running away, not planting a bomb.

Mistry has difficulty getting her bosses to agree with her and finds herself increasingly distanced from the investigation.

Meanwhile and American mother goes to the U.K. to find the family of another Asian girl who is believed to be part of the cell. The mother’s white and is convinced her son is also part of the cell, but knows he can’t be acting out of principles the American Government Agencies, and the press, are attributing to the cell.

She convinces the father to go to the States with her to find their children before the FBI does, because she’s afraid they won’t be listened to fairly, if at all.

The title the hunted come onto play here. The mismatched couple are hunting their children. The FBI are hunting the cell, and also the mother and father team who they now think are also terrorists.

So, who is the puppeteer grooming and guiding the would be activists into terrorism.

And what s their ultimate goal.

I loved this book. It took me right back to the books that hooked me as a young adult. This sits nicely alongside Ludlum, Clancy, and DeMille as a brilliantly tense terrorism novel.

Hopefully there will be a follow up. It doesn’t exactly end on a cliffhanger, but there is scope for another book.

Pages: 468. Publisher: Vintage Audiobook length: 13 hours 21. Narrator: Mikhail Sen

This is the first Rob Sinclair book I’ve read but it certainly isn’t going to be the last.

For years my favourite author was Robert Ludlum, with books like the Matarese Circle and The Icarus Agenda. Then I found Tom Clancy and his Jack Ryan books. Both of these writers produced brilliant Iron Curtain spy and counter espionage books.

The world has moved on, and the threats from terrorism have taken over from the threats from the Soviet Block.

Rob Sinclair has taken over the Ludlum/Clancy crown at the very top of the suspense novel genre, and writes about the modern day every bit as good as Ludlum and Clancy wrote about the Soviet threat.

Sleeper 13, Aydin, is a young man who as a boy was taken from his London home by his father, and passed over to a Jihad terrorist school, The Farm, where he became one of 13 boys who were taught how to be dangerous terrorists. Then, in the finest fashion of the old soviet spy schools, they were sent back to their own countries all over Europe to wreak havoc.

Living a normal life the 13 sleepers wait for instruction from their leader. Number 1, Wahid a vicious thug who rose to the top because of his brutality at The Farm.

Rachel cox is a British Secret Service agent who has heard rumours of the existence of The Farm and its 13 graduates and is trying to substantiate their existence.

Working in Syria she has several informants one of them is Aydin’s sister, Nilay, who looking for her brother.

When Nilay is killed in a suicide bombing it’s not just Rachel who’s affected. Aydin sees her death reported on the news.

This is enough for the already conflicted Aydin to break away from his role in the upcoming terrorist attacks and seek out those responsible for his sister’s death. When it becomes apparent that his fellow graduates had ordered her death because she was getting close to exposing them he is left with only one mission. Kill them, but most of all, Kill the man he holds responsible Wahid.

Meanwhile Cox is still having trouble convincing her bosses of the existence of the 13 and the threat they impose.

Working towards the same target, but for different reasons, Cox and Aydin race across Europe attempting to reach members of the 13. Cox is trying to thwart one of the worst imaginable terrorist attacks, Aydin is trying to revenge his sister’s death by killing his “brother” Wahid.

Pages: 432

Publisher: Orion

Publishing Date UK: 1^st march 2018.