Review: Dark Asset by Adrian Magson

Dark Asset by Adrian Magson, January 2017, 256 pages, Severn House Publishers Ltd, ISBN: 0727886991

Reviewed by Terry Halligan.
(Read more of Terry's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

This author never ceases to amaze me with the high quality of his writing even though he is currently researching and preparing two main series of books. There is this series with Marc Portman and also the 'Cruxys Solutions Investigations' series the last one named THE BID which was published in paperback in February 2017.

Marc Portman's latest assignment is providing back-up for a French intelligence agent sent to recover a hard drive from one of the most dangerous cities on the planet: Mogadishu in Somalia. What he hasn't been told is that the device records secret negotiations between two leading western nations and a hard-line terrorist organisation responsible for killing thousands of innocent people.

When the decision is taken to abandon the talks, anybody in the know immediately becomes a target to be silenced.

And Portman finds himself at the top of the list...

This book was non-stop action and suspense. Portman has to go into the centre of this highly dangerous city to meet a French agent who is supposed to have a hard drive with highly dangerous data on it. Unfortunately, the rendezvous building he goes to is under siege by very unfriendly people and Portman finds the agent but he has been shot and killed.....

It is a book that once started it is almost impossible to put down and I was up until quite late at night before I finally reached the very gripping conclusion.

The main attraction I have in reading this author's work is that the stories are completely unpredictable, in the middle of this one I remember thinking - what is going to happen next? And having no idea at all except that whatever it is will be highly imaginative and take the story in a fresh direction entirely.

This very exciting and sensationally well plotted creation rushes on to its final dramatic conclusion. I have had the privilege of reviewing many of this author's books and I hope to read yet more of this very gifted author's stories, whether it is in this new series or any of the previous ones or completely in a new direction soon. If you want to start reading an exciting book that is exceedingly difficult to put down once started then buy this one. Very strongly recommended.

Terry Halligan, April 2017.

Review: Hard Cover by Adrian Magson

Hard Cover by Adrian Magson, March 2016, 256 pages, Severn House Publishers Ltd, ISBN: 072788607X

Reviewed by Terry Halligan.
(Read more of Terry's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

I have read many books by Adrian Magson and there has not been a bad one yet and he has done it yet again with this latest Marc Portman thriller, the third one in this series.

Marc (codename Watchman) is working, as he usually does as a private contractor for the CIA/MI6 and has been sent into Russia to provide hidden, black ops, back-up for a wealthy Russian businessman who has lived in the UK for many years. Leonid Tzorekov was a former KGB officer but is now sympathetic to the West and is thought to be in Russia now with the object of meeting his old friend President Vladamir Putin to persuade him to be more sympathetic and moderate towards the West.

There are many, however, who do not want Leonid Tzorekov to meet with Putin and will do anything possible to stop him. Portman goes into Russia in disguise and under cover of darkness and puts an electronic beeper under the bumper of the Russian's car. He hopes this will aid him in following the target less overtly then without it. However, there are others who are considering the same tactic, but for more aggressive purposes.

This very exciting, tense adventure kept me guessing right up until the final sentence. I have had the privilege of reading the author's two earlier Marc Portman stories CLOSE QUARTERS and WATCHMAN; I have also read his NO KISS FOR THE DEVIL in his Riley Gavin series and two of his Lucas Rocco stories set in provincial France during the 1960s: DEATH ON THE MARAIS and DEATH ON THE RIVE NORD.

Adrian Magson is a very experienced author and when you open one of his titles you know that the book in question will provide a really interesting and tense plot, and thoughtful, well-described characters. He researches his plots in a thorough and painstaking manner in a similar way to fellow authors such as Stephen Leather and Simon Kernick. The reader can always expect a real sense of tense, nail-biting action and dramatic, page-turning suspense.

I look forward to reading any further adventures of Marc Portman and in fact any new books by this very talented and exciting author. Very strongly recommended.

Terry Halligan, August 2016.

New Reviews: Atherton, Bates, Howard, Johnston, Jones, Knight, Magson, Moliner, Richmond

Here are nine reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, five have appeared on the blog since last time, and four are completely new.

You can keep up to date with Euro Crime by following the blog and/or liking the Euro Crime Facebook page.

New Reviews

I review Nancy Atherton's Aunt Dimity and the Wishing Well, the nineteenth in the Aunt Dimity series set in the Cotswolds;

Ewa Sherman reviews Quentin Bates' Summerchill, in which we catch up with Icelandic police officer Gunna;

Susan White reviews Cold Revenge by Alex Howard, which is the second outing for DCI Hanlon;


Mark Bailey reviews Paul Johnston's Heads or Hearts: the return of Quint Dalrymple;

Geoff Jones reviews J Sydney Jones' Cold War thriller, Basic Law;

Laura Root reviews Disclaimer by Renee Knight, her debut;

Terry Halligan reviews Adrian Magson's Close Quarters, the second Marc Portman thriller;

Lynn Harvey reviews The Whispering City by Sara Moliner tr. Mara Faye Letham

and Michelle Peckham reviews What She Left by T R Richmond, also a debut. 



Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, along with releases by year.

Review: Close Quarters by Adrian Magson

Close Quarters by Adrian Magson, April 2015, 256 pages, Severn House Publishers Ltd, ISBN: 0727885049

Reviewed by Terry Halligan.
(Read more of Terry's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

Marc Portman, who works as a freelance close protection specialist for Government Agencies such as MI6 and the French Foreign Legion has just completed a successful operation in Iran for the CIA and is rehired by them to go to Ukraine for another mission.
Here he has to locate, identify and rescue an American diplomat who is being held by Russian separatists. The CIA has undercover operatives in the country who are able to provide 'safe houses' to shelter the diplomat from his pursuers but obviously they are putting themselves at great risk.

Mark is able to enter the country, in disguise and is soon able, over the course of a few days, to identify the location where the diplomat is held under close guard. With great difficulty he manages to release him and soon both he and Marc are hunted animals who must be caught and it is the tension here that the author successfully puts across that provides most of the action in this very highly plotted and gripping story.

This very exciting and hard to put down thriller rushes on to its final dramatic conclusion. I have had the privilege of reading for review purposes the author's earlier Marc Portman story THE WATCHMAN, and his NO KISS FOR THE DEVIL in his Riley Gavin series and two of his Lucas Rocco stories set in provincial France during the early 1960s: DEATH ON THE MARAIS and DEATH ON THE RIVE NORD.

Adrian Magson is a very experienced author with a large number of books published under his name and other pen-names. When you open one of his books you know that you can count on a really interesting plot and well rounded characters, that has been thoroughly and painstakingly researched. That there is a real sense of action and a very dramatic page turning suspense almost to the last sentence.

I look forward to reading more gripping adventures of Marc Portman and in fact any new books by this very exciting author. Very strongly recommended.

Terry Halligan, June 2015.

New Reviews: Fossum, Goddard, Hall, Kerr, Magson. Oswald, Ridpath, Smith, Stiastny

Here are nine reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, two have appeared on the blog over the last week and seven are completely new.

NB. You can keep up to date with Euro Crime by following the blog and/or liking the Euro Crime Facebook page.

New Reviews

Laura Root reviews Karin Fossum's The Murder of Harriet Krohn tr. James Anderson, the seventh in the Inspector Sejer series and which completes the set of one to ten in English; however it appears, pleasingly, that there are a couple more, newer, Sejers to be translated;

Geoff Jones reviews Robert Goddard's The Corners of the Globe, which is now the middle part of a trilogy;

Michelle Peckham reviews The Burning by M R Hall, the latest in the Jenny Cooper, Coroner series;

Terry Halligan reviews a standalone by Philip Kerr - Research;

Lynn Harvey reviews Adrian Magson's Death at the Clos du Lac, the fourth in the Inspector Lucas Rocco series set in 1960s France;

Dead Men's Bones is the fourth in James Oswald's Inspector McLean series set in Edinburgh, reviewed here by Terry;

Lynn also reviews Meltwater by Michael Ridpath, the third in his Icelandic series;

Amanda Gillies reviews Anna Smith's Betrayed, the fourth in the Glasgow reporter Rosie Gilmour series

and Susan reviews Terry Stiastny's debut Acts of Omission.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

New Reviews: Bauer, Carol, Hilary, James, Knox, Leather, Magson, Morris, Rankin

Here are nine reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, four have appeared on the blog over the last couple of weeks and five are completely new.

The major recent news for fans of Scandinavian crime fiction is that the shortlist for the Petrona Award, which is for the best Scandinavian crime novel (in translation), has been announced. All the details are on the Petrona Award website.

NB. You can keep up to date with Euro Crime by following the blog and/or liking the Euro Crime Facebook page.

New Reviews

Lynn Harvey encourages you to read Belinda Bauer's Rubbernecker which is now available in paperback;

Michelle Peckham reviews James Carol's Broken Dolls, the first in the ex-FBI profiler, Jefferson Winter series;

Michelle also reviews Sarah Hilary's striking debut, Someone Else's Skin which introduces DI Marnie Rome;


Rich Westwood reviews Christina James's In the Family, set in the Lincolnshire fens;

I venture off-topic with Annie Knox's Paws for Murder;

Terry Halligan reviews Stephen Leather's Lastnight - is it the end for Jack Nightingale?;

Terry also reviews the first in a new series from Adrian Magson, The Watchman;

Geoff Jones reviews R N Morris's The Dark Palace, the third in the Silas Quinn series



and Mark Bailey reviews Ian Rankin's latest "Rebus", Saints of the Shadow Bible.



Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

New Reviews: Billingham, Burke, Chance, Christie, Larsson, Magson, Rayne, Sharp, Stark & Competition

And the reviews are back! A slightly longer break than I'd anticipated due to family matters but 9 new reviews follow below plus a very short-term competition to win tickets to meet actors from The Killing (Danish version) at The Scandinavia Show next Sunday. I have 4 tickets to giveaway, just enter a few details in this form.

Here are this week's (globe-trotting) reviews:

Geoff Jones reviews the tenth in the Tom Thorne series by Mark Billingham, Good as Dead;

Laura Root reviews Down These Green Streets: Irish Crime Writing in the Twenty-First Century edited by Declan Burke an "anthology of essays and short stories centred on Irish crime writing";

Lynn Harvey reviews Alex Chance's second thriller, now out in mass market paperback Savage Blood which she describes as "Denis Wheatley meets Dan Brown";

I review the audio version of two recently unearthed Hercule Poirot stories by Agatha Christie: The Capture of Cerberus & The Incident of the Dog's Ball which are read by David Suchet;

Maxine Clarke reviews the long-awaited fourth book in translation by Asa Larsson: Until Thy Wrath Be Past, tr. Laurie Thompson which Maxine sums up in one word: "brilliant";

Terry Halligan reviews the second in Adrian Magson's 1960s France-set DI Rocco series, Death on the Rive Nord and he hopes for more in the series;

Amanda Gillies praises highly Sarah Rayne's latest psychological thriller, What Lies Beneath now out in paperback;

The first of two books set in the US written by UK authors is Alex Sharp's Driver: Nemesis, set in New Orleans; it's based on a computer game and written pseudonymously by an "English thriller writer" and reviewed here by Rich Westwood

and the second is Oliver Stark's 88 Killer, his second book set in New York City and which Michelle Peckham found "absorbing".

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here.

New Reviews: Bates, Bauer, Magson, Marrinan, Nesbo, Newman

Two competitions for January, both close 31st January:
1.Win Assassins of Athens by Jeffrey Siger UK only
2.Win A Noble Killing by Barbara Nadel (International)

Here are this week's reviews:

Maxine Clarke reviews what sounds like a cracking debut: Frozen Out by Quentin Bates (US: Frozen Assets) which introduces Icelandic detective: Gunna the Cop;

Paul Blackburn reviews CWA prize-winner Belinda Bauer's second book, Darkside set five years on from Blacklands;

Terry Halligan reviews the first in a new series from Adrian Magson: Death on the Marais introducing a Parisian cop who has been sent to a Picardie village;

Laura Root reviews Patrick Marrinan's impressive debut, Scapegoat, which draws on the author's legal experience;

I review Jo Nesbo's The Leopard, tr. Don Bartlett an exciting police-procedural/thriller with my favourite detective, Harry Hole

and Lizzie Hayes reviews Ruth Newman's second book, The Company of Shadows which has a Coben-esque sounding premise.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found by author or date, here.

New Reviews: Alvtegen, Beaton, McGilloway, Magson, Walters, Wilson

This month's competition is open to all. Win a copy of The Black Monastery by Stav Sherez.

The following reviews have been added to the review archive over on the main Euro Crime website:

New Reviews:

Maxine Clarke has high praise for Karin Alvtegen's Missing;

I review the latest in the Hamish Macbeth series from M C Beaton: Death of a Witch;

Maxine also reviews the third in the 'Borderlands' series from Brian McGilloway - Bleed a River Deep

Terry Halligan enjoys Adrian Magson's latest Gavin/Palmer outing: No Kiss for the Devil

Norman Price reviews the "impressive beginning" to Michael Walters' Mongolian series - The Shadow Walker

and Mike Ripley reviews War Damage by Elizabeth Wilson, which is set just after World War Two in London, and tips it as a strong contender for the Ellis Peters award.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found here.