coolreads# Manhunter

Manhunter

Author: Chris Ryan

Publisher: Zaffre

ISBN:9781838775216

The story starts off with SAS staff sergeant Josh Bowman, a member of the four-man team of The Wing, a covert unit of SAS working alongside MI5 and MI6, in an agonising withdrawal condition and badly in need of a shot to relieve the pain spreading all over his body. Bowman is with the detail to protect a British-backed tyrant, Ken ‘The Viper’ Seguma, who is the president of the tiny but mineral-rich Central African state of Karatandu.

With this sad but shocking revelation of Bowman's opioid addiction and how he’s on the verge of a withdrawal while on a mission, it sets the condition that the agent has to cope consistently to hide it from the other members of his team.

That is how pathetic Bowman finds himself when assassins carry out a deadly chemical weapons attack at the royal wedding in London. All the signs point to a Kremlin-sanctioned hit. Their victim is a notorious mobster. 

Bowman then suddenly finds himself absorbed into the Cell, a shadowy unit within the SAS, dedicated to fighting global organised crime. In a world where the Russian government is the real mob, it's the job of the Cell to defend British interests at home and abroad. 

For Bowman, whose young family was brutally murdered by an Albanian crime gang, it's a chance for revenge - and to bury his secret opioid addiction as well. He has turned to the pills to cope with the pain after his wife and young daughter were murdered.

But the Russians have only just begun. When the Cell uncovers a sinister plot against a Seguma, they are quickly drawn into a deadly race against time to save the tyrant’s family in Karatandu. 

Soon, they are fighting a terrifying enemy in a brutal battle to the death. Outnumbered, outgunned and with no military support, Bowman and his comrades are all that stand between Moscow and ultimate victory.

After a tense and bitter battle with the rebels, Bowman and the surviving members of Cell are in for another shock - they learn that they are not told the whole truth about their mission in Karatandu. Will they fight back or walk away from the mass killings all around them?

Chris Ryan, an SAS legend himself, writes with the authority of a man familiar with every nuance of the regiment's tactics, training, weapons and equipment. This time, he offers an interesting and enthralling thriller that is fearsome and fast-moving. An interesting and absorbing read.