Info
Written By: Lindsey Mellon.
Published By: Northside.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a physical copy of the book for the purpose of this review, also thanks to Love Book Tours for adding me to the tour.
Overview
On 12th October 1984, an IRA bomb, intended to kill Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, rips the heart out of the Grand Hotel in Brighton. As part of the security response MI6 Station Chief Rome – Haydon Talbot – is tasked with foiling a Libyan plot to ship vast quantities of Semtex explosive to the IRA.
As the wheels of international espionage roll through Rome's historic centre, Libyan and British agents are pitched against each other in a deadly game of cat and mouse. Haydon recruits British entrepreneur Charlie Lomax to front a sophisticated nuclear sting, with the aim of penetrating the highest levels of the Libyan security establishment. But his bosses will go to any lengths to score a political victory, even if it means sacrificing Haydon's operation and agent in place.
As the IRA ship carrying the Semtex sails slowly north towards Ireland, Haydon faces conflicting pressures from above to interdict the shipment, whilst seeking to rescue Charlie from a brutal Tripoli jail.
Review
I love a good thriller and to put it simply this is a good thriller, set in the good old 80s (I'm an 80s kid) back when the Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher was in number 10 and there were many people who wanted to see her gone mainly those within the IRA. This book is a thriller surrounding a fictional plot to take down the premier lady at number 10, MI6 have got hold of intel of a shipment of Semtex coming from Libya on its way into IRA hands, to say this would be catastrophic would be an understatement.
Haydon Talbot is tasked to take down this shipment from within bending the rules and breaking protocol to recruit a spy who can infiltrate the Libyan security force and take it out, that recruit is British businessman Charlie Lomax who is intelligent in everyway but putting a wet behind the ears spy straight into the battlefield is the upmost risk but with time most definitely not on their side it's a risk they need to take. In the ultimate game of cat and mouse good has to win the day or the government will have a massive problem at their doorstep.
This was a great read but at the same time quite scary that this could well have been reality. Lindsey Mellon has a furious writing style that grips you from the start and doesn't let go, this book had everything I could've wanted in a thriller fast paced action with suspense in the bucket load a definite edge of the seat read. With the IRA being a huge threat to the royal family and government at the height of the troubles in the 70s/80s having the possibility of this book being a reality is a scary thought and thank god it wasn't. Definitely put this as a recommendation from me.
Verdict-Out of 5 ⭐
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
EXCELLENT
I give Straw Man and excellent score of 5 ⭐, a gripping thriller that is scarily close to reality, suspense on every page edge of the seat reading. A definite recommendation from me.
Grab your copy of the book here
Note on the Author
Lindsey Mellon was born in London in 1949 and largely uneducated. He is passionate about history, travel and current affairs and has harboured an ambition to write fiction for six decades, but never quite got off the blocks. He recently completed a Faber 'Work in Progress' course, as part of which he developed the first draft of 'Straw Man'. He is presently writing a sequel 'The Sheikh', set in Khartoum during the sinister infancy of Al-Qaeda during the early nineties. Widely travelled, he has lived in the UK, Ireland, Kenya, Sudan, Somalia, Italy, Spain and Switzerland. He has worked, among other things, as a pilot, a painter, an entrepreneur, an oil explorer and as a Producer in Film & TV. He lives and works in Oxfordshire.
This review was part of the Love Books Tour please check out the other bloggers on the tour
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