Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

John Milton #9

The Jungle

Rate this book
An assassin haunted by his past. Two young refugees out of their depth and in need of his special talents.

John Milton is no stranger to the world’s seedy underbelly. But when the former British Secret Service agent comes up against a ruthless human trafficking ring, he’ll have to fight harder than ever to conquer the evil in his path.

After Milton meets a refugee who lost a sister to people smugglers, he travels through war-torn Libya and the murkiest parts of Italy and France to get the girl back. As enemies watch his every move, Milton confronts a group of Albanian pimps and smugglers so dangerous, they could easily make this mission his last.

The Jungle is a gripping standalone thriller in Mark Dawson’s bestselling John Milton series. With cinematic set pieces, characters you'll grow to love, and edge-of-your-seat action, it’s easy to see why Dawson’s books have been downloaded more than one million times and optioned for a big screen film franchise.

Buy The Jungle to watch “the British Jack Reacher” get pushed to the brink today.

376 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2016

1756 people are currently reading
608 people want to read

About the author

Mark Dawson

114 books1,855 followers
For news and special offers join Mark's mailing list at:

http://eepurl.com/Cai5X

Mark Dawson was born in Lowestoft and grew up in Manchester and Chicago. He has worked as a lawyer and currently works in the London film industry. His first books, "The Art of Falling Apart" and "Subpoena Colada" have been published in multiple languages.

He is currently writing two series. Soho Noir is set in the West End of London between 1940 and 1970. The first book in the series, "The Black Mile", deals with the (real life but little known) serial killer who operated in the area during the Blitz. "The Imposter" traces the journey of a criminal family (think The Sopranos in austerity London and you'd be on the right track).

The John Milton series features a disgruntled special agent who aims to help people to make amends for the terrible things that he has done. Mark, as a child of the 80s, will freely admit that he watched a lot of The Equalizer in his youth.

Mark lives in Wiltshire with his family.

You can find him at www.markjdawson.com or www.facebook.com/markdawsonauthor.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
1,804 (48%)
4 stars
1,460 (39%)
3 stars
401 (10%)
2 stars
60 (1%)
1 star
11 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 170 reviews
Profile Image for Jennifer (Jaye).
1,111 reviews64 followers
March 23, 2023
*Riveting*

‼️Some torture and references‼️

This is the best one yet in my opinion. This book kept me awake so here I am at the end of yet another instalment of the John Milton series.

As Milton a former assassin with the infamous ‘Group Fifteen’ who go in when all fails. He has left the group that you can never leave. He is a recovering alcoholic and seeking amends. Now as most of the people he wants to make amends are dead he wants to help others.

Well here goes, after an AA meeting a guy who has a job driving over to France has a broken arm. Milton says he will help as he has a HGV license. Well both men set off, what happens refugees have cut into the roof of the parked truck that Milton is driving on the way back. They are detained. One of the desperate men needs help. His sister has been abducted and has phoned and he wants to find her Milton says he will help.

We see Milton seeking out the address she is not there but the remaining girls say she has been taken, he then leaves carnage in his wake. One of the women decides to go with him which means he must protect her. As he needs to be in dangerous places, he calls in a favour, for someone to guard her while he goes off.

We see him travelling to Libya, getting on one of the illegal boats and we see him in terrible danger. Then Milton falls into a trap after he is betrayed, but what makes him so dangerous is he can blend into a crowd and underestimate him at your peril, I will leave it there….. as Milton faces off the most dangerous men in the smuggling trade…..

Thrilling and I found myself thinking what’s going to happen and I always need to read something light to calm down.
Profile Image for Dan.
29 reviews3 followers
May 21, 2016
John Milton. Who would have thought that in such a quick time John Smith could have taken the action readers world by storm? Like the best present in the bunch I held off till yesterday to open the newest installment of the Milton series. As I flipped the last page on my phone today I said, “Nice Job Dawson” . The Jungle does not disappoint.

When my lawyer and friend Wayne Novick said” Dan, I think you will like this author”. I said I’ll give him a try. I waited a month. But when he mentioned him again I bought my fist copy. My friend and I have been friends for years and both of us are vivacious readers. So I trusted this was going to be at least readable. lol

So I added this new Guy, Mark Dawson, to my Gym reading list. New authors go this list as it is a one hour a day at the gym reading tome while I am on the elliptical. Mostly because I am also listening to music and watching something on the many TV’s there. That way if the new book turns out to be a bust and boring or slow I have a bunch of other things going on to fill the void.

After the first hour this series moved up to the top of the reading list. I have read, now all the books Dawson has written and have not been disappointed yet. Simply not a page without something happening. All the books are great!!

The books! You Will love them if you love action, as well as a personal connection with the players in the book. In addition, this guy, the author, is a regular guy. A book nerd like most of us and loves to just hang out with his readers. This is a great train to jump on!

If you have not started, get started. If you have then hurry and pick up this new one you will thank me!
6,235 reviews80 followers
July 23, 2017
This time, John Milton decides to help a refugee find his sister. Of course, he does things the hard way, and goes to Libya so that he can smuggle himself back into Italy, using the same network as the refugees.

Lots of violence and betrayals. Pretty good stuff.
Profile Image for Denise.
7,519 reviews137 followers
November 7, 2019
Milton is asked for help by a young refugee whose sister was taken by human traffickers and sold to a bunch of Albanian gangsters operating illegal brothels in London. Unable to find the missing girl there, Milton sets out for Libya in order to track down the smugglers who sold her by retracing her steps from the dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean through the long journey across Europe and to the Calais refugee camp known as the Jungle.

Two good ones in a row? What is this strange magic? Best book in the series so far IMO - let's hope the trend continues.
September 4, 2020
The Jungle is a decent enough story about Milton's effort to find an Eritrean illegal immigrant who has been kidnapped and sold to human traffickers. Once again, Milton is making amends, step number nine in the AA twelve step process, by providing significant help to a complete stranger.

In reading the book, I often had the impression that Dawson was either being somewhat lazy or using a less talented writer to flesh out his plot. The prose was frequently simplistic and repetitious, subject, predicate, subject predicate.

The story, however, was interesting enough that I stayed engaged and enjoyed it. The characters, both those from previous stories and new ones, were interesting and pretty well fleshed out - this may have been the best element of the book.

If you've read and enjoyed previous John Milton books, as I have, you will probably enjoy this one as well. If you haven't you might start with the first book in the series.

The End
Profile Image for Bob.
135 reviews22 followers
June 9, 2016
How often have I said this: Dawson does it again. The plotting here is definitely fresh and original as The Cleaner, aka John Smith, goes underground into the world of shipping illegal immigrants from Africa to Europe.

There were sequences I had to close the book and hold my breath.
Profile Image for Hallie.
954 reviews128 followers
Read
December 30, 2016
Very good in its depiction of human trafficking and the refugee camps in France (among other places), but I didn't like Milton enough to be interested in reading more in the series.
Profile Image for Jon Koebrick.
1,192 reviews11 followers
August 24, 2021
The Jungle was a good quick read that will appeal to fans of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series or Gregg Hurwitz’s Orphan X. The book had a satisfying ending with good action to get there. A high 3 star book.
Profile Image for HoneyAhmad.
197 reviews2 followers
July 22, 2018
Ah. Good to be back in Milton’s world. He’s still one of my favourite ex-assassin do gooder in the genre.
Profile Image for Judy Churchill.
2,567 reviews31 followers
February 23, 2022
There are parasites in this world who profit from poor people just trying to survive. John is out to stop a huge ring of human trafficking.
Profile Image for Twobchelm.
998 reviews20 followers
May 2, 2022
As Milton tries to make amends for his past deeds he’s again swept up in a cause that takes him to many dark places .
Profile Image for Sue Garwood.
350 reviews
April 17, 2021
Another excellent outing for John Milton, thoughtful, flawed and trying hard to right wrongs.
772 reviews
April 29, 2018
I didn't like this as much as the other John Milton books, but I'll keep reading them because I like John Milton. He's on the run from the government; he was a specialized assassin for them. It was a good read, but ....

In this book, he's helping a friend bring goods back to England from France, and some refugees from Syria smuggle themselves into the truck. The one boy is trying to find his sister who was sold to human traffickers for the sex trade. The boy is placed in a refugee camp and John decides to help him get accepted to stay AND find the sister. From there, we follow the underbelly of how the traffickers work, and John goes to Libya to follow the trail from the start to find her. And he does.
Profile Image for Debbie.
9 reviews
May 19, 2016
Another great John Milton adventure!

I throughly enjoyed this latest installment in the John Milton adventures. Although this book could stand alone, it will make you want to read the whole series to understand this man. He is thoughtful and kind but so incredibly effective fighting evil and protecting the innocent. He is a hero, flawed like everyone but you hardly notice you are so busy rooting for him! I love this series and I think Mark Dawson is an incredible writer ....
Profile Image for Jim A.
1,267 reviews82 followers
June 4, 2016
Another well written John Milton entry. Ninth book into the Milton series and I've not become bored with the character. A big thing for me in Dawson's writing is the way he describes the scene. Keeps the reader involved and interested while filling in the novel. Excellent.

As in the second Milton novel, Saint Death, the subject is human trafficking. Dawson does a very good job working with today's hot issues. Worth the read.

Profile Image for Robert Enright.
Author 31 books206 followers
March 9, 2023
Good story and another fine showing for Milton. Nice to see previous characters woven into the story.
Profile Image for Frazer.
21 reviews1 follower
May 20, 2021
The Jungle is far from the best Milton book.

I usually thoroughly enjoy the Milton thrillers. They're an excellent way to tune out from the world and have a bit of silly fun. They're like James Bond or Jack Reacher. Nobody reads them for the literary qualities.

But this one is just ridiculous. I won't give away too much as I don't want to spoil it for anyone else. Milton departs too much from his normal modus operandi for this to be believable. His debt isn't to anyone who he knows or owes anything to this time. It's from a chance encounter. Upon being unable to find the information he needs, his first response is;

"I better go to Libya and pretend to be a refugee looking to escape then. As long as I pull my cap down no one will realise I'm northern european",. What? In what world is that even semi-believable.

Hopefully, this is just a one-off, as I have enjoyed all of the previous Milton books. Or maybe this one just went too far for me to believe it, and everyone else loved it, who knows.

It wasn't for me.
Profile Image for Rosemary Hughes.
4,192 reviews23 followers
March 28, 2018
This review is submitted after listening to the audiobook of this book.

Another Milton escapades into the defense of those unable to defend themselves.
We see the tortured world of refugees, fleeing one form of torment, only to have their females placed into situations that are little more than sex slaves, but within the United Kingdom. Milton takes up the cause of one young man, trying to find and extracate his sister from one such nightmare. John is showing his age, a little, with mistakes that the veteran assassin would not have made earlier in his career.
It's a gripping story, one which informs of the plight of the wretched souls escaping persecution in their home lands, only to be at the ruthless hands of those wishing to profit from the misery of others.
590 reviews4 followers
April 4, 2019
John Milton has made a promise to himself-----With all the killings I have done,I now will
help those people who will benefit from my involvement in their problem and their life.
Samir is missing,his sister Nadia was abducted by smugglers.Albanians.
And John Milton will find her and return her to her brother.
The title of the book is an app way to describe the way young women who are bought and sold.
Horrible! Filth-poor health facility -poor food-and crowded places with no room to breath.
In the previous novel featuring Milton we came upon Alex Hicks another soldier like Milton.
The novel:THE NINTH STEP.And they helped each other now.
Milton fought the Albanians and killed a group of them.
A great novel with a horrible knowledge of buying and selling humans.


578 reviews
August 9, 2022
Another in the series of the ex-assassin who decided to change his life and exit the work he did for a secret government "fix-it" squad. He is know living a simple life and only working in his old role when he comes across in-justice...which he seems to do very often.

This one was about trafficking from Northern Africa through Europe into Great Britain. Milton is confronted with a victim and he commits to doing what he can do to right the wrong. He does quite a lot...including multiple deaths.

This series is a good one, if you like the action action/espionage/crime genres...which I do. The Milton character is about a ex-assassin trying to right all the wrongs he did under the guise of following orders.
27 reviews
November 1, 2022
I’ve been loving these books, but I am getting tired of the dumb damsel doing stupid things.

Let’s get this straight
1. A person smuggled into a country and sold into the sex trade would NEVER go straight back to the person who did this to them, simply because her advances got turned down by someone who is actually helping her.
2. If Sarah knew where the Albanian was, why wouldn’t she just tell John.

This is such a major plot flaw, that I’ve typed this review right after it happens in the book and am unsure if I’ll ever read another John Milton.

The last few books all seem to have a lady in distress, hat goes exactly against what they are asked to do. It is unimaginative and just plain lazy, sloppy writing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Author 3 books5 followers
November 17, 2022
The ninth book in this series finds John Milton in London having recently left the job that got him involved with his last adventure. At an AA meeting he agrees to help someone with some HGV driving and becomes involved with the plight of two refugees when one of them attempts to enter Britain in the lorry Milton is driving from France. Milton meets the desperate young man he learns his desperation stems from his sister disappearance at the hands of the people smugglers, and her offers to help.

Milton travels to war-torn Libya (we’re in the early 2010s) to the start of the smugglers route to Europe, then through Italy and France until he finds and confronts the ruthless leader of an Albanian crime gang.
203 reviews
May 24, 2025
Milton meets a stowaway while driving a shipment from France to England. After hearing the his story of how he was trying to save his sister who got sold to sex traffickers he decides to help and get her back.

As is to be suspected Milton ends up rescuing the girl, after having numerous run ins with the Albanian mob after tracking the smuggling ring from the start. While there are some unbelievable scenes in all of the books, I felt like a number of decisions Milton made in this one were just out of character, and lacking his normal considered approach. Doesn’t take away from the story however.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
300 reviews
August 29, 2025
A seeming simple favour for a new friend results in John meeting and befriending a refugee in need of help to recover his sister from Albanian mafia.

But, to complete his missing, John needs to be in two places at once, so he calls in his favour from Alex Hicks, unknowingly putting both men in much greater danger than he could have ever anticipated.

I listed to the audio version of this book and found the narrator to be suited to the story.

Am I glad I read it - yes.
Was it a waste of my time - no.
Would I sit down and read it all over again - not really that kind of book - once you know how it ends, you know.
Would I read more by this author based on this book - yes.
Profile Image for Gail.
564 reviews1 follower
June 23, 2017
Powerful, suspenseful, and action-filled!

This series just keeps getting better and better. Mark Dawson knows how to develop his stories and characters to keep you intrigued and interested so you can not put down the book. John Milton wants to help when no one else will or cares. It is part of his ninth step in AA, and there is no stopping him once he is on a mission. Mark Dawson is very detailed in his descriptions of scenes. This is a great book, and I am sure you will enjoy it!
Profile Image for Thomas James.
578 reviews12 followers
April 2, 2019
#9 Rivets

Dawson picks subjects that actually happen in this world and in that sense they are based on fact, though I'm pretty sure that the actual events are fiction. Milton scrapes through again. He ALWAYS gets caught and somehow escapes and lives. Have you ever wanted to just fix things that are WRONG with the finality of John Milton? Of course, we don't because...well, a lot of reasons. Still, it's kind of fun to think about even if I can't or won't ever do it. John Milton rivets you in that way.
Profile Image for Ken Bour.
378 reviews
November 10, 2022
I enjoyed this installment in the John Milton series considerably more than #8, which devoted too much time, for my taste, to John's recovering alcoholism and AA meetings. "The Jungle" brings back hair-raising action sequences and seemingly hopeless/perilous situations for Milton (alias Smith) and his former military buddy, Hicks, as they try to assist an Eritrean refugee rescue his sister from a prostitution ring run by a nasty group of Albanians. Dawson is an excellent author and I look forward to future episodes featuring John Milton.
Profile Image for Steve.
515 reviews19 followers
February 21, 2024
The Jungle By Mark Dawson
Book 9 in the John Milton series and they are starting to feel all a little bit the same.

I enjoy Milton as a character but what made the books interesting was that Milton had to be cautious as he was a wanted man hiding in the shadows but the last two books have found Milton roaming around London causing chaos and destruction under the noses of those that want him dead without a care in the world.
The book was just silly might be the last Milton book I pick up for a while.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 170 reviews

Join the discussion

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.