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: 1st march 2018.
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