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Codename: Moneyman [File No. 1]
A top 5 kindle action thriller
File no. 1, Moneyman, also known as Codename: Moneyman, is the action-packed, thrilling story of one SAS trooper who must uncover international espionage or die in the attempt...
British Secret Intelligence selects a man to carry out a sanctioned termination in Tenerife. He leaves on the mission unaware of his real purpose. He's one part of a secret plot to uncover a spy deep within the London, Whitehall establishment.
The mission rapidly turns deadly.
He soon discovers the world of international espionage has placed him in a desperate situation and presented him with an impossible task. Chinese, Russian, and British agents hunt him while his only help comes from a single London contact, but can he trust her?
Will his skills as an elite-soldier be enough to keep him alive long enough to complete his mission and discover the truth, or will time run out?
"A suspense packed read with a surprising ending." L.R. Currell
"More twists and turns than the Monaco Grand Prix!" Thomas L
"This is a barnstorming read." Maurice Shellard
"I hope to see a lot more from this author." Chris Ryan
"I really enjoyed this merry-go-round of suspense and action." HE
"The main character would give Bourne or Reacher a run for their money." John Carter
318 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 28, 2011
174 people are currently reading
461 people want to read
About the author
Mark Arundel
12 books10 followersBorn in London and living in Norfolk, Mark Arundel enjoys long walks, reading, and writing. Growing up, he read the books of Alistair MacLean, Len Deighton, and Eric Ambler—three outstanding British authors.
Mark is writing the next book in the Meriwether Files series, tales filled with suspense, action, and intrigue. He works diligently on material, research, and technical accuracy to create authenticity, and with page-turning writing, always keeps his readers enthralled.
Mark is writing the next book in the Meriwether Files series, tales filled with suspense, action, and intrigue. He works diligently on material, research, and technical accuracy to create authenticity, and with page-turning writing, always keeps his readers enthralled.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
March 8, 2014
I really liked this thriller! Not too sure where the title came from, just to tell you it's sort of a spy story I guess. Each chapter has a line of how to play a card game (bridge?) and sort of gives you a hint to what might happen in the chapter. I liked that. It has a lot of twists and near escapes and lots of action. It'd make a good movie I think. There are other "Codename"s, this is the first. I imagine it would be best to read this one before the others.
February 17, 2014
Ya gotta have a plan!
June 30, 2017
Great first
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel of British espionage and the character and role of leading character. He had to play the dual role of assassin and protector. This was hard to put down and was an exciting read. Thanks to all involved in bringing this book to me.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel of British espionage and the character and role of leading character. He had to play the dual role of assassin and protector. This was hard to put down and was an exciting read. Thanks to all involved in bringing this book to me.
February 6, 2015
I liked it!
As with all my reviews I refuse to write a synopsis of what the book is about, if you want to know that read the book description. With that being said, I really liked the smooth fluid writing style of this author. The book was a very easy read with just enough going on as not to confuse the reader but be descriptive all in the same. A nice little series here and a few memorable characters and a nice story plot. If your an Andy MaCnab fan of Gary Hayes, Stephen Hagberg etc. You will like this series..a solid 4 Stars and I have already purchased book#2 in the series. If your a fan of spies, MI6 etc. Then do yourself a favor and pick this series up, I think you will enjoy it!
As with all my reviews I refuse to write a synopsis of what the book is about, if you want to know that read the book description. With that being said, I really liked the smooth fluid writing style of this author. The book was a very easy read with just enough going on as not to confuse the reader but be descriptive all in the same. A nice little series here and a few memorable characters and a nice story plot. If your an Andy MaCnab fan of Gary Hayes, Stephen Hagberg etc. You will like this series..a solid 4 Stars and I have already purchased book#2 in the series. If your a fan of spies, MI6 etc. Then do yourself a favor and pick this series up, I think you will enjoy it!
December 3, 2014
Good read! I liked the quotes about 'Contract Bridge' that headed each chapter. They gave a clue to what might happen in the chapter (Note: no bridge is played anywhere in the story.) I thought it interesting that the main character so easily agreed to the mission. On the other hand, he is a patriot, a little down on his luck, and needs a job. He not jaded or embittered against his government - that in itself is refreshing. He always has to come up with a plan, because the last plan didn't quite work out, due to the fog of battle.
February 2, 2014
This was an amazing story--at times scary, other times very humorous. The main character is never given a name--he is just an ex-soldier. He gets a supposed job to kill a man on Tenerife--no reason given. Then it turns out he is to protect him instead--against several Russians, a Chinese woman, etc. It is quite interesting to see how he copes with various situations in his guardian role. We know that he survives, because there is another story about him
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 26, 2015
A very good book.
I picked this book to read because it sounded interesting and I am always looking for new authors to read. I really enjoyed this book
It kept my interest and at times kept me at the edge of my seat. It was very fast paced and kept me guessing till the end, which to me was a big surprise. I enjoyed it so much that before I finished reading this book, I purchased the other two books in the series and I can't wait to read them.
I picked this book to read because it sounded interesting and I am always looking for new authors to read. I really enjoyed this book
It kept my interest and at times kept me at the edge of my seat. It was very fast paced and kept me guessing till the end, which to me was a big surprise. I enjoyed it so much that before I finished reading this book, I purchased the other two books in the series and I can't wait to read them.
October 30, 2012
Quite a good read, I liked the main character and would probably read more of the books. It is quite a suspense packed read with a surprising ending. A little bit hard to
Follow in parts as there is a lot going on but all in all I enjoyed it.
Follow in parts as there is a lot going on but all in all I enjoyed it.
February 4, 2014
This was an awesome read.
March 22, 2014
Not the ending I expected!
May 15, 2017
London, England. Whitehall St. The next meeting was with Charlotte “C” Miller (government dept. civil servant, SAS operative), Stephen Bradshaw (Military Intelligence) & Sir George Winchester (Foreign Office).
Moneyman (former British Army) next hit was Geoffrey Button (33. white, British, Oxford publishing co. technical proofreader) on the island of Tenerife.
Alicia de Cortes Silver was Moneyman’s contact.
A huge turn of events Moneyman was to protect him now not whack him.
Vladimir Karyotin (Ukraine assassin) & Franz Berne (Ukraine assassin) were knocked out cold for now.
More confrontations with 2 other goons Robert Treadwell (British consulate), & Andrew Baines (British consulate).
The next confrontation was with Xing (f, Chinese contract-killer, Hong Kong).
Why was Dr. Jennifer Smithson (30+, Cambridge) examining Señorita Maria de Cordoba?
Will there be more assassinations?
Guns & butter haven’t forgot that stuff.
I did not receive any type of compensation for reading & reviewing this book. While I receive free books from publishers & authors, I am under no obligation to write a positive review. Only an honest one.
A very awesome book cover, great font & writing style. A very well written international espionage thriller book. It was very easy for me to read/follow from start/finish & never a dull moment. There were no grammar/typo errors, nor any repetitive or out of line sequence sentences. Lots of exciting scenarios, with several twists/turns & a great set of unique characters to keep track of. This could also make another great international espionage thriller movie, or better yet a mini TV series. There is no doubt in my mind this is a very easy rating of 5 stars.
Thank you for the free author; Laughing Gulls; Amazon Digital Services LLC; book
Tony Parsons MSW (Washburn)
Moneyman (former British Army) next hit was Geoffrey Button (33. white, British, Oxford publishing co. technical proofreader) on the island of Tenerife.
Alicia de Cortes Silver was Moneyman’s contact.
A huge turn of events Moneyman was to protect him now not whack him.
Vladimir Karyotin (Ukraine assassin) & Franz Berne (Ukraine assassin) were knocked out cold for now.
More confrontations with 2 other goons Robert Treadwell (British consulate), & Andrew Baines (British consulate).
The next confrontation was with Xing (f, Chinese contract-killer, Hong Kong).
Why was Dr. Jennifer Smithson (30+, Cambridge) examining Señorita Maria de Cordoba?
Will there be more assassinations?
Guns & butter haven’t forgot that stuff.
I did not receive any type of compensation for reading & reviewing this book. While I receive free books from publishers & authors, I am under no obligation to write a positive review. Only an honest one.
A very awesome book cover, great font & writing style. A very well written international espionage thriller book. It was very easy for me to read/follow from start/finish & never a dull moment. There were no grammar/typo errors, nor any repetitive or out of line sequence sentences. Lots of exciting scenarios, with several twists/turns & a great set of unique characters to keep track of. This could also make another great international espionage thriller movie, or better yet a mini TV series. There is no doubt in my mind this is a very easy rating of 5 stars.
Thank you for the free author; Laughing Gulls; Amazon Digital Services LLC; book
Tony Parsons MSW (Washburn)
May 17, 2017
The British SIS hires a recently discharged elite soldier for an elimination mission. He’s to go to Tenerife and kill a British citizen who is deemed a ‘threat to national security.’ Upon arrival, however, his contact in London informs that his true mission is to protect the man. He learns that Russian, Chinese, and British assassins, however, are determined to kill the man, and if necessary, him as well. It will take all the skills he has to survive, let alone accomplish his mission.
Codename: Moneyman by Mark Arundel is the first book in the Codename File Books series. It is a well-plotted story, with lots of action and intrigue, marred by the fact that the main character is never names—just referred to as an elite soldier. Given the number of times he has to show ID or interact with people who would want to know his name, not to mention his conversations with Charlotte Miller, his SIS contact in London, it’s incredible that his name is never used—not even once.
But for that one glitch (personal opinion) and a few too many typos this would be an easy five-star rating. Unfortunately, I can only give it three and a half stars, with the caveat that the author shows lots of promise, and I predict that the subsequent books will be better.
Codename: Moneyman by Mark Arundel is the first book in the Codename File Books series. It is a well-plotted story, with lots of action and intrigue, marred by the fact that the main character is never names—just referred to as an elite soldier. Given the number of times he has to show ID or interact with people who would want to know his name, not to mention his conversations with Charlotte Miller, his SIS contact in London, it’s incredible that his name is never used—not even once.
But for that one glitch (personal opinion) and a few too many typos this would be an easy five-star rating. Unfortunately, I can only give it three and a half stars, with the caveat that the author shows lots of promise, and I predict that the subsequent books will be better.
May 27, 2018
Dishonourable discharge
He is discharged from the army for attacking a superior for not telling him his mother was ill before she died without his knowledge or presence. He is left without a future, sleeping on a married friend's couch for a week. She is due to give birth. It's time to find alternative accommodation and some form of employment. He receives a call just a week after his discharge with a Government related agency where he is offered a well-paid assignment to kill someone. He accepts only to be led a crazy confusing game of intrigue to protect his target while exposing a traitor. This well-written story is fast and furious taking readers to Tenerife on a wild ride for their lives. Highly entertaining and enjoyable!
He is discharged from the army for attacking a superior for not telling him his mother was ill before she died without his knowledge or presence. He is left without a future, sleeping on a married friend's couch for a week. She is due to give birth. It's time to find alternative accommodation and some form of employment. He receives a call just a week after his discharge with a Government related agency where he is offered a well-paid assignment to kill someone. He accepts only to be led a crazy confusing game of intrigue to protect his target while exposing a traitor. This well-written story is fast and furious taking readers to Tenerife on a wild ride for their lives. Highly entertaining and enjoyable!
July 26, 2021
This story contained a very interesting premise around which you craft a story. I loved the recruitment methodology and the way that our hero came to be a hero. I also felt there were a few minor lapses in believability. It seemed that the hero stayed around the little town when it would seem that once things got hairy, you would head for the proverbial hills and put distance between yourself and the bad guys. The traitor twist meant that things had to happen a certain way. But, that caused some of the lapses. Overall, a very pleasant read.
February 17, 2019
Totally agree with reviews that complained about misspelling and grammatical errors. Very distracting and on top of that it was too long with bad guy shows up and fight, then steal car and run, another bad guy-fight-steal car and run. Too much and he doesn't do anything to permanently stop bad guy from reappearing in next chapter even though he knows bad guy will kill him and his "protectee"
May 5, 2017
Action a plenty in sunny Tenerife
A magnificent murder/ mystery or is it murder? It certainly looks like it to begin with and it certainly is to end with but what happens in between is something else entirely.
A magnificent murder/ mystery or is it murder? It certainly looks like it to begin with and it certainly is to end with but what happens in between is something else entirely.
October 9, 2019
I really liked this book. Well written action-adventure. Good descriptions of thought processes and of environment. I'd have preferred to see a bit more dialogue, but that's just my personal preference.
May 13, 2017
Exciting Thriller
Non-stop excitement with escalating tensions until the end. Surprising twist at the end that I didn't see coming or expect.
Non-stop excitement with escalating tensions until the end. Surprising twist at the end that I didn't see coming or expect.
November 20, 2017
Sticks and stones
Good story line. Decent language. Excellant action. Very believable. Good read. Once again. I missed the ending. Looks like a good start on a series.
Good story line. Decent language. Excellant action. Very believable. Good read. Once again. I missed the ending. Looks like a good start on a series.
January 3, 2018
Keep going
The story jusr kept going through problems that seemed impossible. Maybe it could happen but it seemed too much. That is fiction I suppose...anything can happen.
The story jusr kept going through problems that seemed impossible. Maybe it could happen but it seemed too much. That is fiction I suppose...anything can happen.
December 31, 2018
I really enjoyed this, so much so I bought the next in the series straightaway.
Plenty of action, unexpected turns and not everything ends pat the way I generally like it to.
Plenty of action, unexpected turns and not everything ends pat the way I generally like it to.
July 18, 2015
I am a fan of the spy novel. This book just didn’t hit the right notes for me. But first, I have nits to pick. The electronic version of the book is full of spelling errors, grammatical errors, punctuation errors and contextual errors (the word “passed” being used where the word “past” should have been used as one example). I don’t care if the book is free or $100. If you want readers to pay for the next book, the first one should be correct. It is maddeningly distracting to read and then silently correct every mistake.
As for the story – there wasn’t much of a lead in. One minute the main character is couch surfing, the next he goes on a very vague job interview and is asked to kill someone with a very thin dossier provided and no real answer as to who the contractors are representing. Even at the end of the novel, it is still vague.
The main character is off to Tenerife with nothing but a backpack and throughout the book he is amassing a gun collection based on his hand to hand combat skills and a series of unlikely situations. He is able to defeat teams of Russian assassins, a Chinese ninja, the local Tenerife police force and another team of British assassins/agents all while injured and trying to carry around extraneous people, including the one he was supposed to kill and is now protecting.
Every time he spoke on his satellite phone to his controller, her first question was “what happened now?” She rarely had a plan, a backup plan or details like any intelligence organization or service would have and he always ended up giving a smart ass comment and hanging up.
The characters didn’t feel well developed and there were glaring gaps where the natural questions the reader would have weren’t answered. I guess I have pre-conceived ideas of what, for me, makes a good spy novel. Len Deighton and Ian Fleming spring to mind immediately and this book is not really in that vein. If you’re a spy thriller enthusiast, give it a shot and form your opinion as I noted there were many positive reviews from other readers. It just didn’t meet the bar I have set for this type of book.
As for the story – there wasn’t much of a lead in. One minute the main character is couch surfing, the next he goes on a very vague job interview and is asked to kill someone with a very thin dossier provided and no real answer as to who the contractors are representing. Even at the end of the novel, it is still vague.
The main character is off to Tenerife with nothing but a backpack and throughout the book he is amassing a gun collection based on his hand to hand combat skills and a series of unlikely situations. He is able to defeat teams of Russian assassins, a Chinese ninja, the local Tenerife police force and another team of British assassins/agents all while injured and trying to carry around extraneous people, including the one he was supposed to kill and is now protecting.
Every time he spoke on his satellite phone to his controller, her first question was “what happened now?” She rarely had a plan, a backup plan or details like any intelligence organization or service would have and he always ended up giving a smart ass comment and hanging up.
The characters didn’t feel well developed and there were glaring gaps where the natural questions the reader would have weren’t answered. I guess I have pre-conceived ideas of what, for me, makes a good spy novel. Len Deighton and Ian Fleming spring to mind immediately and this book is not really in that vein. If you’re a spy thriller enthusiast, give it a shot and form your opinion as I noted there were many positive reviews from other readers. It just didn’t meet the bar I have set for this type of book.
August 3, 2012
After two bad reviews of one of my books, I've become sensitive to giving a negative review to another author. It's especially unfair after getting book as a freebie on Kindle. But... what to do when you have problems with a story.
Arundel's book certainly had a fast-paced plot and interesting characters with a story set in an exotic location--the Canary Islands. All of these I enjoy.
What annoyed me about this story was long paragraphs of telling rather than showing and dialogue. Plus there were repeated flight and fight scenes. Not just a few. One after another to the end of the book until it became predictable and tiresome.
However, I must say that the author shows a lot of promise. Perhaps the second in this series will be much better.
Arundel's book certainly had a fast-paced plot and interesting characters with a story set in an exotic location--the Canary Islands. All of these I enjoy.
What annoyed me about this story was long paragraphs of telling rather than showing and dialogue. Plus there were repeated flight and fight scenes. Not just a few. One after another to the end of the book until it became predictable and tiresome.
However, I must say that the author shows a lot of promise. Perhaps the second in this series will be much better.
February 20, 2014
Pretty good, but for a guy who's supposed to be a hired killer you would think that he would have gotten some of the bad guys out of the way early on so he didn't have to keep dealing with them again and again. Also (spoiler) I have to wonder why his handlers think he did such a good job since the man he was supposed to protect ended up dead...I think I would be looking elsewhere for someone to handle my next assignment. Anyway, it was interesting because the characters were interesting, although the editors seemed to have a love affair with the comma; it was constantly being used inappropriately.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 3, 2014
Rcvd Kindle addition free thank you.
Interesting story about a young soldier who is offered a position with the Government, he is to leave immediately and has specific orders, however, when he
gets to his "target" there are complications. Things change, who to trust.
This soldier is smart and he tries to keeps his "target" alive, and in doing so helps his government expose a traitor. Who is the traitor and can he keep his "target" safe? Have to read it.
Interesting story about a young soldier who is offered a position with the Government, he is to leave immediately and has specific orders, however, when he
gets to his "target" there are complications. Things change, who to trust.
This soldier is smart and he tries to keeps his "target" alive, and in doing so helps his government expose a traitor. Who is the traitor and can he keep his "target" safe? Have to read it.
October 28, 2016
I decided to pretend I was a 14-year old boy playing an action X-box video game in order to get through this book. It reads like someone describing what they are watching in a movie. Detailed fight and chase scenes galore. No character development. No idea even what the main character's name is. I guess it was interesting enough to finish though. Who woulda thought!? Two more in the series on my Kindle. Yikes.
January 29, 2014
This was an unusual book. The main character was hired to kill another person. When he arrives in Tenerife, it is changed to keeping the person alive. The book has a lot of twists and turns. I'm not sure whether I'd recommend it or not.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 26, 2014
This was an enjoyable book to read. Very fast paced. The main character was constantly jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.. and then back. First book of the series. Guess I will be looking up #2 soon.
September 19, 2014
A good read
I would have given it a 5 star rating but I had a few problems with the main character. It is a fast paced well written story. I would definitely recommend it and will be reading the second shortly.
I would have given it a 5 star rating but I had a few problems with the main character. It is a fast paced well written story. I would definitely recommend it and will be reading the second shortly.
May 12, 2015
While this was a fast-paced, enjoyable espionage story, all I kept focusing on was, Doesn't anyone use an editor to read Kindle versions of the book? The spelling & grammar errors were so distracting..
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews