Greed is a poignant story of what happens when you mix terrorism, money, love and when all these elements combust into a thriller as written by Chris Ryan. It starts with five men, one robbery and then revenge and betrayal set in to destroy what originally begins as a covert operation, sanctioned and helped by MI5. Freshed out of the SAS, Matt Browning appears to have an easy life in Marbella, but he soon develops serious money problems that even his fiance Gill knows nothing about.
Down on his luck, Matt's investments have gone bust and he owes the Russians half-a-million pounds. If he doesn’t pay the money back soon, he dies. Then out of the blue, he is offered a lifeline from Alison, a contact from MI5. The plan suggests a hit on Al-Qaeda, to be aided by MI5. All Matt has to do is to gather a team of five - preferable former SAS men. Matt gets to pick three but MI5 insists on choosing the last member.
Their job is to steal some $30 million worth in gold and diamonds from the world’s deadly terrorist organisation and then get to keep $10 million for themselves.
MI5 will provide all the logistics intelligence and equipment for the operation. No charges will ever be pressed. Matt thinks it’s a perfect crime and it helps solve his financial woes. So he sets out to recruit his team - all men with money or job problems.
After undergoing some basic preparations and training, the team is ready for the operation. But once the money is stolen as per their planning, the killing starts. Apparently, someone is taking down the members of the team one by one. A silent assassin is stalking the team, gruesomely murdering both them and their families.
After the first team member and his family are killed, the others all decide they can trust no one. If the killer is not one of the team, then how does the killer know their identities and where to find them? Is Alison behind the killings, asks Matt?
The remaining members of the team go into hiding and lay low until another member is killed. This time, the rest want to fight back but the problem is, how do they find the killer?
The story mostly follows Matt but the reader also gets to read the mind of the killer. This makes the story plot more interesting, although the question nagging the reader is, who is behind the killings? Will the killer succeed in eliminating all of them? Some of the killings may be too gruesome and disturbing to the reader as there are quotes from the Quran that have been twisted to justify the killings and there are a couple of references to the glorious events of September 11.
There are plenty of twists and betrayals as the action culminates in a surprising ending. Overall, Greed offers one important lesson - that crime never pays and there is always a price to pay for being greedy.
