SAS hero Joe Mansfield, who was there in Pakistan when it happened, knows that Osama is dead. He saw the Seal Team 6 go into the building, and he saw them extract their cargo.
Now, it seems like someone wants Joe dead instead because of what he'd seen, and they are willing to do anything to carry that out.
Joe suddenly finds that his world is violently dismantled, his family targeted and his reputation destroyed. Then, as a mysterious and ruthless enemy plans a devastating terror attack on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, Joe realises that his only chance of survival is to find out what happened in Osama’s compound the night the Americans went in. However, there appears to be an unseen power that has footprints it needs to cover up. And it will stop at nothing to prevent Joe from uncovering the sinister truth.
Throughout Osama, Ryan gives a commendable account of the military details, drawing on his own personal experience. This gives the story greater texture and authenticity.
Osama has a good story plot and the subsequent action that follows through the pages will keep the readers glued.
The thriller kicks off on the fateful night outside Islamabad. Joe Mansfiend is part of a SAS team whose responsibilities are solely to hold the perimeter while DEVGRU swoops in and takes out their target. Unfortunately, a helicopter crashes, as did happen in real life and Joe’s partner disobeys orders, breaks perimeter and witnesses the SEALS' operation. Both the SAS soldiers see not one but two body bags being transferred to the surviving Black Hawk and only make it back to their positions before being detected. They mistakenly believe they are in the clear. But the CIA officer who oversees the operation spots and identifies them with some nitty facial recognition software after reviewing the after action footage and initiates a series of events.
Joe’s partner is killed when an IED blows him up on a routine mission. This eventually leads Joe to develop serious mental health issues. He leaves the SAS and is driven to drinking. Later, when he is nearly run over by a Range Rover and then ambushed by mysterious men who frame him for the premeditated murder of his wife, Joe decides to fight back.
Meanwhile, on a housing estate, a group of jihadists, led by a man who wishes to fill the power vacuum in Al Qaeda, is gearing up for a devastating terrorist attack on both the UK and the US.
These threads converge in a tangle of betrayal and heart-rending despair as Joe escapes from their plans to capture him and learns that the men who ruined him may be on the verge of killing thousands more.
Ryan makes a believable conspiracy out of historical events for this thriller. The research done by the author offers readers some insights on how modern British law enforcement works from the prisons to how Scotland Yard tracks suspects.
The setting is also enlightening - from the prison Joe gets incarcerated in, the broken housing estates where the jihadists congregate to the rusted, rain swept playground where events come to a climax - the author is able to create a depressing atmosphere to capture the mood.
Osama offers another look at how the jihadists work to carry on the leader’s goal even after his death and as Ryan speculates in his book, there are many more Osamas in the making, emerging after this. And that is a frightening thought indeed.
