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Saturday 15 August 2020

Slow Burn (Dan Shepherd #17) by Stephen Leather

 


Description from Goodreads:

"Should we bring them back?

There are thousands of jihadi brides in refugee camps in the Middle East. Some of them were once British before they were stripped of their citizenship. Were they brainwashed or simply naive when they set out for Syria as teenagers? And, if they were allowed to return, would they pose a threat to our country?

Spider Shepherd is about to be sent on an extraordinary mission to the Syrian border by his MI5 boss. There he will have to decide which of the women he meets is still a threat, and if not, which of them has information useful to the Secret Service and can be allowed back. His are life or death decisions.

But there is one bride he must take back to the UK whatever her circumstances. She is the wife of a notorious ISIS bombmaker, Salam Jaraf. Jaraf is an asylum seeker who has information on terrorist cells in Britain. But the bombmaker will only tell MI5 what he knows if his wife and son are brought to him. But it soon becomes obvious that hostile forces are following Spider and Mrs Jaraf across Turkey. Bringing this woman back from the warzone will become one of the most dangerous missions Spider has ever undertaken."


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Number 17 already ... I can't believe it ... I never get bored of reading about Dan "Spider" Shepherd's escapades, scrapes and feats of derring-do!  Mr Leather is extremely adept at keeping things fresh and exciting; these books never get old or feel like they are being re-hashed just for the sake of it and if you haven't yet read any of them, what is wrong with you!!!  You don't even need to read them in order to appreciate them but be warned, once you read 1 you will want to read them all.

Here we have the topical and very believable and scarily plausible tale of home-grown terrorism, the use of drones as weapons by terrorists, the question of whether to allow jihadi brides to return to the UK and the minor story of Chinese spies.  This sounds like a lot but don't be put off, it flows seamlessly and effortlessly and, for me, it feels like an accurate reflection of the life of an MI5 agent having to keep lots of plates in the air at once whilst trying to stop a disaster of epic proportions from happening.

This is an exciting read full of brilliant characters which is hard to put down ... yes I know this is a clichΓ© but absolutely accurate in this instance.  There is less of the personal story in this one and more action ... I wonder if this is because the next instalment sees Spider and his son, Liam, team up on an operation?  Or is it going to delve into the Chinese intelligence angle?  Whatever it is, I for one can't wait, so hurry up Mr Leather and write faster πŸ˜€

Many thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for my copy in return for an unbiased and unedited review.


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