It’s my pleasure to be taking part in the blog tour for the latest thriller from author Oliver Tidy, The Fallen Agent, the first book in the new Jess Albion series. Big thanks to Oliver and Caroline Vincent for inviting me to take part. I’ll be sharing my thoughts on the book in just a moment, as soon as we’ve taken a look at what it’s all about.
The Official Book Blurb
Jess Albion has recently started a new life on the other side of the world with a new identity. She used to be MI5. Then a job went bad, someone died and she was made an example of in the British courts. But MI5 look after their own. Or they did until rumours of a planned Al Qaeda biological terror attack on London started circulating. Now someone in the British security services is giving agents up in return for information. No price, it seems, is too high to save London from the ultimate threat.
When Jess’s fresh start is compromised she has a choice to make: run and hide and spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder or go looking for the threat and snuff it out. On her own, she’d run, but she has Nick on her side.
The Fallen Agent is a story of love and hate, of loyalty and betrayal, of revenge and callous disregard for human life in the pursuit of satisfaction.
Opening with an attempted murder and following the unravelling of a potential terrorist threat against London, from start to finish this book is full of high stakes tension and action.
Spurned by the very Government she once served loyally, Jess Albion has been offered as the sacrificial lamb, not once but twice. In exile in New Zealand, she had been hoping to make a fresh start, to put behind the betrayal and the horrific events which led her there, but someone has other ideas. With her life once more in danger, Jess joins forces with a former partner, in work and love, Nick. As they travel back to Europe in a bid to make a deal which may just save her life and prevent a terrorist attack on the Capital, Jess is thrown into a highly dangerous and highly political situation in which not everyone will leave with their lives intact.
This book was a really fast paced read, the chapters short and each one driving the action forward and making me want to read onward. Jess Albion is a really intriguing character. Burned by the British Government, and faced with a heart breaking tragedy, she still manages to maintain a hard edge, showing herself to be a gutsy and intelligent character. Her recent past is almost impossible to reconcile and yet she finds some kind of inner strength, resolves to keep fighting and to find justice for her fallen compatriots.
There is a wonderful edge to her character which is complemented by the equally courageous and intrepid Nick Dart. He has a wonderful history with Jess and a clear desire to protect her, but while he is your true action hero, it is clear from the off that Jess can more than hold her own. In contrast you have the contemptible Henry Price. Although he makes decisions in the interest of National Security, you can’t help but feel there is a more personal agenda, that not all of his choices are entirely ethical or fair. It makes him very, very hard to like.
The story is perhaps recognisable, based around an episode of the TV series Spooks. Even if you are not a fan of the series, and I have to admit I have probably only seen maybe one or two episodes myself, sadly, the idea of a terrorist attack upon London is hardly uncommon these days. That this is destined to be chemical attack, that the effects of if cannot possibly be contained thereby having potential global consequences just adds another layer of jeopardy to an already tense storyline. It certainly had those nerve jangling, heart stopping moments, and there is more than one occasion when you wonder just what kind of danger Jess has placed herself in and if there can ever be a happy conclusion to her story. Happy? Well, perhaps not, but certainly satisfying.
This was certainly a really intriguing start to the series and, as a fan of action and espionage style thrillers, I am looking forward to seeing where Mr Tidy takes Jess Albion next.
Many thanks to the author for the advance copy of The Fallen Agent for review. It is available now from the following retailers.
Amazon UK | Amazon US
About the Author
Crime writing author Oliver Tidy has had a life-long love affair with books. He dreams of one day writing something that he could find in a beautifully-jacketed hard-cover or paperback copy on a shelf in a book shop. He’d even be happy with something taking up space in the remainder bin, on a pavement, in the rain, outside The Works.
He found the time and opportunity to finally indulge his writing ambition after moving abroad to teach English as a foreign language to young learners eight years ago.
Impatient for success and an income that would enable him to stay at home all day in his pyjamas he discovered self-publishing. He gave it go. By and large readers have been kind to him. Very kind. Kind enough that two years ago he was able to give up the day job and write full-time. Mostly in his pyjamas.
Oliver Tidy has fourteen books in three series, a couple of stand-alone novels and a couple of short story collections. All available through Amazon (clickable link to Am Author Page). Among his books are The Romney and Marsh Files (British police procedurals set in Dover) and the Booker & Cash novels, a series of private detective tales set in the south of England and published by Bloodhound Books.
Oliver is back living on Romney Marsh in the UK. His home. He still wakes in the night from time to time shouting about seeing his books on a shelf in Waterstones.
You can follow Oliver on social media:
Website | Twitter | Facebook
Why not check out some of the other blogs taking part in the tour.
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