Death Force

Death Force #1

by Matt Lynn

A riveting military action adventure novel - Band of Brothers mets Andy McNab in a story of hard nosed mercenaries. In Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, the British are fighting an increasingly desperate battle to contain a resurgent Taliban. The British commander knows the Taliban control the heroin trade, which brings in vast amounts of money for weapons. They back a covert mercenary unit to steal the drug lords' money. The deal: they will get intelligence and logistical support from the British Army, and in return they get to keep the money. The unit is put together by DEF's best man, Steve West; vastly experienced and ex SAS. But the men from Death Inc. find themselves fighting a desperate rearguard action through the lawless badlands of southern Afghanistan, and al-Queda-controlled northern Pakistan...

Genres: Fiction, Action

452 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

I am a thriller writer, living near London. 'Death Force' is the first in a series of books following a group of mercenaries around the world. It owes a lot to action, adventure writers like Alistair MacLean, and World War Two writers like Sven Hassel. It also owes a lot to Westerns. When I'm not writing thrillers, I write a financial column for Bloomberg, and I write for The Spectator.

Reviews

[Dimitri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once started, you can't put it down! This book screams to be made into a movie. It's The Dirty Dozen in Afghanistan, composed of all your favorite non-American special forces: SAS, South African "Recce"whose training includes a week without food or sleep, an Ulster veteran, a orientally stoic Gurkha... with a crazier-than-crazy Speznatz thrown in. A chapter to recruit each man & a meticulously planned operation. Place your bets on who dies first, or on where the first fuck-up will come from.

It's like a beautiful baby made by Andy McNab - whose novels are the main source of military knowledge for that kid on the team who's totally wet behind the ears but shows an instant natural aptitude for gritty sniping - and Chris Ryan, who gets to write a foreword about how soldiers of fortune are the wave of the future. Interesting food for thought one you've tasted all the British colloquialisms; like how the "Blues" refers to the Royal Horse Guards, who stoically endure stupid tourists year-round at their London barracks.

Realistically, it has absolutely zero compassion for the Afghan fighters which our heroes slaughter in overwhelming numbers. Regardless of their affiliation, they're sadistic savages.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

My new thriller - so obviously I like it.

[Gaurav Sharma · Rating 4 out of 5]

awesome. exhilrating. fight incidents described in such a way that my heart was beating fast.

i read it in a one sitting.very neatly and properly described about black opps, ammunations,death,taliban.
Good read. :)

[Chuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steve West is a mercenary; we used to call them soldiers of fortune. Steve contracts with the head of a PMC, Private Military Corporation, to put together a ten man squad of mercenaries to raid an Afghan warlord's compound and steal his cache of gold, precious stones, etc. worth 30 million dollars and in return the squad will split the loot. You won't believe the twist at the end. This is a good story.

Matt is one of my Goodreads friends. If you haven't tried him yet I recommend that you do. An added bonus is that Matt is a Brit and this story is about Brits. I learned the difference between "kit" and "kip."

[Paul Seneca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll keep this review short and sweet as other reviewers have already covered the novel in great depth ad with very good synopsis. This is a great introduction to the Death Force series and I would recommend this is where new readers start. It is far too good a series to be reading in the wrong order as I can guarantee you will feel the need to read more having read one. There is quite a lot of setting up the series here, and Lynn spends a few pages introducing each character. Some readers may find these sections a bit dull. But stick with it. By the time you get into the adventure it is a great story – and will certainly get you hooked.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much better prose than the usual books in this genre, believable and for the most part engaging characters but their back stories took up too much of the beginning of the book.

Always like good (and factually accurate) descriptions of items/locations which is especially key in fiction with a military plotline, and although I have never been to Afghanistan the author really delivers here which I am guessing is down to his background in journalism.

Really enjoyed this, hoping the characters come back for another outing.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book! I am a big Andy McNab fan and this book is written in the same style and flair. The characters were real, you could almost form a bond with each man on the team. Very well written, 5 stars across the board, I will now read the other 2 books in the series.

[Ramesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simply in love with this book.A group of 10 highly trained soldiers of different units all over the world in a crazy mission that never seems to go right.Superb explaination of weapons and millitary units.Two thumbs up.

[Sean C · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was pretty weak. Unrealistic characters, a ridiculous plot, a childish twist at the end all wrapped up in a cliche title. Avoid this one.

[Jane Plumridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb, fast paced, very hard to put down. Nothing better that that in a book!!

[Steve G**** · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is the literary version of a ‘straight to DVD’ film and something I’d likely find in the discount basket at a motorway services.

Despite its predictable plot, clichéd characters and frustrating lack of military knowledge it is what it is…a low brow, boys own adventure.

This said, it’s certainly not the worse book I’ve read, it cracks on at a good pace with plenty of action but I won’t be reading any more in this series as I feel I know the plot/stories/outcomes already.

[Barno · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dull , boring, no humor whatsoever.
I would call this book authors wet wild dreams while 10 military men going to Afghanistan to steal gold from an afghan boss.
Fighting with a bunch of crackheads and winning some fights and Afghani men asking for mercy, author must be delusional. The Russian and USA army could not win those afghans but Rembo, Terminator, Rocky have as many B movies.
Don't waste your time on this book you will not learn anything new or read anything fun even interesting.

[Ray Khan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fight scenes and action in the book was written fantastically. It was let down by too many characters with little development of personalities or relationships. The same character quibbles recurred through the book. I also think the banter and language used was far off from that used by actual mercenaries.

[Jack Zhong · Rating 3 out of 5]

In general, it’s interesting to know some military actions.

[Ronaldo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read. Interesting characters and plot.

[Ajax · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75

[Warwick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic story of a mission for a team of mercenaries well told. Moves along well, right amount of description, plenty of twists.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was very good. Much better than I was expecting. I thought it might have been a hard read but it was actually really enjoyable.

The first 100 pages of the book were character build up when assembling the team of mercenaries and it was actually really interesting and it gave you a feel for the characters and to make you care what happens to them - for me it worked well.

The next 50 or so pages was the preparation for the mission which was also good and the mission itself was great as well with some twists along the way.

The writing style was good, the book flowed nicely and was surprisingly easy to read.

I have knocked off a star for one thing. The author can't count! Without spoiling there are crates of loot and various things happen with them but it seems to me as if the author lost track because the number of remaining crates did not tie up. It's a little thing but the author should be able to keep tabs on this as it was part of the storyline.

That aside it was still enjoyable and I will be carrying on with the set and am looking forward to the teams next adventure.

[Carly Svamvour · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeff and I finished this off tonite. Normally, neither of us would choose something so violent in nature, but it being a freebie from a library discussion group, we took it on.

We liked the way the story moved - fast, exciting and each battle coming to a definite conclussion - like bang - we got 'em all and they're dead! Ha!

We found the author's need to describe each weapon and refer to it at least once on each page a bit tedious.

That really is more than I want to know about AK-47, or Malakorov (spelling ...).

At the end, when they all sit down to eat and open their envelopes, I don't truly believe that will be their last battle.

And I see I'm right - there are more books!

Ha ha - I'll give it a 4 ... but I'm not interested in ordering the next book in the series.