Matt Johnson (2)

End Game – Brilliant Ending to the Trilogy

Matt Johnson has created a brilliant trilogy, with his former SAS officer, now Police Inspector, Robert Finlay. I wish, hope that he changes his mind and turns this into a series of Finlay thrillers, especially as the series ends in the early noughties.

Robert Finlay is called out to an incident at Kentish Town Police Station, where a police officer and former soldier has taken a fellow officer hostage in the toilets of the station. It has been years since he took a hostage negotiation course and is out of practice. Some how he manages to talk the officer down even though the Professional Standards team wanted to go in all guns blazing.

The local commander warns him that Mellor the head of Professional Standards is out to get him any way he can. That he is not a man to be crossed and certainly does hold grudges. One of the reasons why he could never be rotated back in to mainstream policing teams. When one of his friends and colleague is arrested for murder he once again crosses swords with Mellor, who wants to suspend but cannot.

At the same time, he is reporting to his Mi5 handler that Kevin Jones’ house has been professionally bugged and that he may be being set up by outside powers. When Jones’ escapes from the magistrate’s courts, Finlay is suspended from duties.

As Finlay tries to help Jones out the world and his enemies close in on them both and are facing certain death. Will they survive to live another day, especially as Finlay can see that Jones is being set up to take an almighty fall.

All Finlay and Jones can hope is that Mi5, and their former colleagues in the SAS can work out what is happening to them and where they are before bullets are planted in the pair of them. Will Finlay see his children again and his wife Jenny, all he can do is hope and pray that they are going to be fine.

This Robert Finlay series is nothing but brilliance, written by a master of his subject, through experience and knowledge. He delivers fast moving beautifully written thrillers that keep you gripped to the edge of your seat. Simply stunning and such a shame it ends here.… (mehr)

Robert Finlay believes that he has left his military days behind him and it is now time to kick back and enjoy life as a detective working in London. That dream is quickly shattered as a series of odd incidents start happening around him. First an author and his agent go missing just when their about to publish a new book that will shock the world about the Muslim underground efforts growing in the Middle East. This literary work brings back memories of another document that Finlay once held in his hands containing the same secrets. This document also threatened his life and those of his fellow soldiers who were present for the discovery, as over the course of the years many of the men involved have turned up dead.

Finlay has managed to maintain a close friendship with one of those soldiers who was present, Kevin Jones. The two have experienced a lifetime of events together, including fighting off threats against their life. It now seems that Jones has landed himself in a world of trouble with accusations swirling around him for crimes Finlay does not believe he could have ever committed. With the aide of an MI5 operative, Toni Fellowes, Finlay will delve deep in to the heart of the UK's security services to uncover the truth behind the document that has haunted his past and the crimes Jones is being accused of. What exactly does this document say and who is hunting those who have been exposed to it?

END GAME is the riveting conclusion to Matt Johnson's Finlay trilogy. While I have not had the pleasure of reading it's predecessors, WICKED GAME and DEADLY GAME, I can assure you I will be placing an order very soon to get my hands on them! Robert Finlay is the main character in this novel. Finlay is a captivating man with an immense history in his military service that the reader sees come back to influence his current life. Johnson brings the heart of Finlay and the passion that drives him to light through the actions he takes, be it his hostage negotiating techniques, his concern for fellow veterans, or the way he interacts with his family. It becomes clear very quickly that Finlay is a man of many dimensions with a deep core of goodness that drives him to fight for what is right and protect his country. END GAME is equal parts mystery, intrigue, heart, and soul. This novel is perfect for readers looking for a unique take on crime fiction that blends a rarely seen mix of military and government activities with the life of a detective to create a heart pounding story.

Thank you so much to Orenda Books and Matt Johnson for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for my review. Please be sure to check out the rest of the blogs showcasing this book on it's blog tour!… (mehr)

Deadly Game - as addictive as heroin

If you were blown away by Matt Johnson’s 2016 debut Wicked Game, then Deadly Game will leave you breathless, as this new Robert Finlay is as addictive as heroin, but without the needles or the need to smoke. Deadly Game, and Matt Johnson has raised his game, this book has a multi-layered narrative, the plot is mind blowing creating a tense and very exciting thriller you will not want to put down.

I was blown by Matt Johnson’s writing when he debuted 2016, the characterisation, the plot, the pace, and the knowledge make for an exhilarating, at times twisted and dark thriller, where you really do want to cheer on for Team Finlay. What this guy has been through and still in the police and still being treated like a mushroom by both Mi5 and Mi6. Deadly Game is most definitely a stunning thriller touching on one of the great crimes of our age, human trafficking.

Robert Finlay is current living in an Mi5 safe house in London with his family, and all he wants to do is get back to work as a Police Inspector with the Met. The problem is his colleagues see him as a bullet magnet, and do not want to work near him, but his Mi5 liaison officer Toni Fellowes is trying to find him a place back in the force. When he gets a message to contact the commander of the Anti-Terrorist Branch who is willing to take him back but he will have to become a detective inspector and learn on the job, but he is going to an ant-trafficking investigation.

Teamed up with a highly efficient DS Nina Brasov he is going to be looking into trafficking of people in to the UK from Eastern Europe. When he and Brasov go to check on a witness and find her dead they are drawn in to the murder investigation and stumble on the killer. A killer who Finlay recognises from a recent wedding he has attended and he realises that this is not going to be an easy case.

When the trafficking gang take an off-duty police officer out of her car, Finlay knows he is in a race against time, and he does not know who to trust. With Mi5 and Mi6 interested in what he is doing but providing little help when needed, with corrupt police officers, he turns to the only people he can really trust, members of the SAS.

Will he be able to get back a Met colleague alive, will he be able to move on and know that he is finally free from the spooks in his life. Robert Finlay is complicated person who you cannot help but like, he is human and makes poor decisions but will he be able to rescue a colleague and save trafficked women before they are murdered when they are no longer useful.

A stunning thriller, a real page turner, well researched and written by a brilliant storyteller.… (mehr)

Wicked Game – Stunning Debut

Wicked Game is an absolutely stunning debut thriller that will take your breath away at its pace, its writing, like me you will be blown away. To think that this book started out as therapy to help him deal with PTSD after working in both the police and army. This is an absolutely breath taking, compelling that will just blow your mind, this sort of work you expect from an experience writer, not a novice. All I can really say is WOW!

Robert Finlay is a police inspector with the Royalty Protection team and he is starting to feel his age and with a young family and it is time for him to move on. One thing that he does have is a secret past that neither his employers the Metropolitan Police or his family know anything about. That past is known only to a very select few, he is a former officer of the SAS, was at the Iranian Embassy in 1980 and had served out in Northern Ireland.

A police inspector is blown up while on duty and another is shot while cleaning his car outside his house, both former colleagues of Finlay’s from the regiment. Finlay starts to see a pattern, one which his former commanding officer in the regiment tends to support. When Finlay becomes the target he knows the truth will have to be told if he is make sure his family are safe.

So begins a game of cat and mouse as Finlay and another police officer also former SAS comrade know they need to find out who wants them dead. With the help of their former CO they track down IRA operatives but cannot do too much. They are trying to avoid their colleagues in the Anti- Terrorist Branch, while trying to stay alive, while they work out who their unidentified enemy is, while being hunted by the police and terrorists alike.

Wicked Game is one of the most compelling thrillers that will be read this year, Matt Johnson’s experience as a police officer and soldier brings the authenticity that other thrillers lack. Just like in real life nothing is clear cut, this is an intricate well planned thriller that packs a real punch. It is even harder when the smoke and mirrors tends to put Finlay in further tougher spots.

From the first page through to the last the reader is completely hooked and drawn in by the writing and the descriptions, this is such an absorbing and thrilling read. The authenticity of the writing, and the knowledge of what happens in particular situations raises this above other thrillers. This is really a case of the writer having been there, done that, got the t-shirt, his experience searing through the pages. Experience and knowledge always trumps research, because one has been there and the other can only talk about it.

Wicked Game really does give you, flash, bang, wallop and like bullets no words are wasted but hit the target every time. Matt Johnson is a new name in thriller writing and with his brilliant writing we have a new star writer.… (mehr)