‘A very captivating and fun read.’ Noelle reviews action #thriller JENKS by @burrell_barney, for Rosie’s #Bookreview Team #RBRT

Today’s team review is from Noelle. She blogs here https://saylingaway.wordpress.com

Noelle has been reading Jenks by Barney Burrell

I purchased this book for review, as a member of Rosie’s Book Review Team.

If you are a fan of James Bond and Jason Bourne, you will like Jenks, a freelance professional assassin with a moral compass. The book is a fast-paced thriller, and I will admit at the outset of this review I am a sucker for such books.

Jenks (short for Graham Jenkins) was recruited early in his life for an ultra-top secret government agency (MI5 on steroids). He chose to reject the offer but returned to accept it after time spent in the armed forces. He now lives rather anonymously in a house by the sea, taking only those assignments that appeal to him as an assassin.

The plot is an old trope: someone steals explosive, high level secrets about various world governments from the CIA, with the altruistic intention of providing them to a WikiLeaks type of organization which would reveal them and overturn the world order. Jenks is hired to find not only the people stealing and delivering the information but also those buying it.  The action takes place simultaneously in London, Virginia and Washington, with the story shifting from site to site.

Jenks is, of course, ruggedly handsome with brilliant turquoise eyes (normally hidden by contact lenses, so he can blend into his background) and is ultimately competent in his profession. Nicely, the author has given him a less robotic, human side – from refurbishing his old house to flirting with a local barista. 

Yes, the book is standard high-octane and the base plot unordinary, but there the commonalities end. The author has layered in several plot lines, a lot of high tech spyware, and moles at every level. Everyone is being manipulated, even Jenks to an extent, so the reader is unsure until the end who are the actual “good guys,” if you can call them that.  A warning, though, there is some graphic violence.

The only criticism I have is that there are a couple of places in the book where the author goes into enormous technical detail, a lot of which I didn’t follow, so when I got the gist, I skipped over those sections.

High tension, technical wizardry, and the knowledge that Jenks will successfully complete his assignment (how else could it end?) made this a very captivating and fun read. I definitely look forward to another Jenks outing.

4.5 stars

In a nutshell.. Ruthless freelance professional assassin Jenks is hired by ultra-top secret government agency – responsible for the dirtiest of work – to kill a rogue CIA analyst and prevent a super Wikileaks-like Russian backed dissemination of catastrophic above Top Secret explosive revelations, capable of overturning the world order.

Using the most ingenious of spycraft, the chameleon like Jenks has no option but to let the crime play out until the very end. With the action taking place between Soho, London and Virginia, USA, Jenks hurtles towards the ultimate confrontation and sacrifice – his pedal to the metal race to uncover the truth will leave you gasping.

AmazonUK | AmazonUS