This series just gets better and better.
I suppose that if your name is James Ryker and you know that TROUBLE follows you everywhere, it will even make you suspicious when a young boy of fourteen falls off his moped in front of your car – just hours after you’ve arrived in the middle of nowhere in Norway. Ryker tries to help the teenager – however – before he can, a police car arrives and the police officer, takes hold of the boy, (Hendrik) and puts him in the back of the car. Almost immediately, a truck also arrives, and two hardened men jump out and load the moped onto the back and the two vehicles speed off.
James Ryker loses them but finds a small town called Blodstein. He stops at the only restaurant and while having a meal, a policewoman arrives, and a few minutes later the same police officer who’d taken Hendrik with a very suspicious attitude and interrogates why Ryker is in his town. When asked for his name, replies, Ryker replies, Carl Logan. A name he’d changed years before.
Whether as Carl Logan, or James Ryker, he cannot see something suspicious without making further enquiries. He suspects that there is something suspicious happening in the town. He is even more convinced when the police officer introduces himself as Politiforstebetjent Wold – Inspector Wold. And tries to “persuade” him that there is nothing in the town for him – that he should move on.
Normally, Ryker is summoned to help his old firm, The JIA, a secretive organisation previously run by the UK and US governments. However, he’s in Norway, trying to keep one step ahead of his many enemies. Except, a young boy needs his help. It makes Ryker/Logan think back to his youth and the man who rescued him and turned him into the agent he’d become for the JIA.
What is so remarkable about this novel is that once again, we’re seeing a far more mature Ryker. Still very wary of the world. Still trying to escape his demons but at the same time a man who will fight for justice, regardless of his safety. I also loved the fact that I’ve left the book wondering why he was even in Norway? Why choose to visit it? What drove him there? I somehow think I might not ever get the answers.
Rony
Elite Reviewing Group received a copy of the book to review.