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  “The fat guy laid his suitcase down and popped the locks, then lifted out two green cylinders from the foam packing. He laid them carefully on the ground and slotted them together before twisting off the end to reveal a red cap. The other man had his suitcase open; he lifted a black mechanism onto his shoulder and faced the valley. The fat guy stood behind him and fitted the cylinder onto the top of the mechanism.

‘Holy shit,’ said Montrose. ‘That’s a fucking missile.'”

 

Mark Leggatt’s new book, The Silk Road, starts with a bang and not a whimper … literally. Although protagonist Connor Montrose has shot two suspected terrorists trying to prevent it, a USAF C-130 transport plane is blown up by a missile as he watches, the strike ordered by the mysterious Director, based over a thousand kilometres away in Dresden. If that’s not enough, he’s then almost killed by a drone and ends up speeding away from the scene of the crime in the trunk of the car he’s been forced into at gunpoint by a Brit who seems to know his name. Former CIA, Montrose is currently on the wanted list of pretty much every major law enforcement agency so he’s understandably edgy.

As the world comes under attack, Montrose does what he does best and starts to investigate. As the focus shifts towards Russia and the Silk Road, while he tries to elude the agencies all desperate to catch up with him, Montrose uncovers a nefarious plot which implicates people at the highest levels of society and government, the extreme right, arms dealers and even the CIA itself.

The third outing for Connor Montrose, The Silk Road is an entertaining yarn. Fast-paced, tautly written and action-packed, it’s Alistair MacLean on steroids in the twenty-first century.

 

The Silk Road | Mark Leggatt | Fledgling Press | Paperback | £9.99

 

 

 

Acknowledgements: Quote, p.7, The Silk Road © Mark Leggatt, 2018. This review and the Q&A are published as part of the virtual book tour. Many thanks to Kelly Lacey of Love Books Group for organising it and to the publisher for supplying a review copy. All opinions are our own. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

 

See also:Robert Olen Butler’s Paris in the Dark; ‘Remembrance of things past: The Old You‘; ‘Gunnar Staalesen: The Literary Lounge Q&A’; Ken Lussey’s compelling Eyes Turned Skywards‘; ‘Soundings – in search of one father’s war’ (art review); ‘Another one bites the dust: Symon’s Overkill; ‘Beautiful words – The Language of Secrets’; ‘Beauty in translation – Roxanne Bouchard’s French Canadian noir’; ‘Johana Gustawsson’s Keeper – indie publisher Orenda does it again‘; ‘We should all be feminists’; ‘Jane Harper’s stylish debut – The Dry’; ‘Mallory an old-style hero – It Happens in the Dark by Carol O’Connell’; ‘How Penguin learned to fly – Allen Lane and the Original “Penguin Ten”’; Dorothy L. Sayer’s Busman’s Holiday – Romek Marber for Penguin Crime (book covers we love).

This review is © 2018 by The Literary Shed. All rights reserved. All opinions are our own. We welcome your feedback and comments. If you wish to reproduce this piece, please do contact us to request permission. Thank you so much.

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