It’s the first Saturday of the month which means it’s time for 6 Degrees of Separation!
Here’s how it works: a book is chosen as a starting point by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.
Kate says: Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal or esoteric ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge. Join in by posting your own six degrees chain on your blog and adding the link in the comments section of each month’s post. You can also check out links to posts on Twitter using the hashtag #6Degrees
This month’s starting book is The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.
The Haunting of Lamb House by Joan Aiken is set in the house where Henry James wrote many of his most famous novels – Lamb House in Rye (now owned by the National Trust).
Talland House by Maggie Humm is set in the artistic community of St Ives and features the house and some of the characters who appear in Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse.
Staying with artistic communities, The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton is set in Birchwood Manor, temporary home to a group of artists riven by petty rivalries and jealousy.
In a similar vein, Artists in Crime by Ngaio Marsh takes place in an artists’ retreat run by Agatha Troy during which a death occurs. But is it accident or murder?
Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L Sayers involves another gathering of artists, this time in Scotland, and more mysterious deaths.
Finally, in Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot is asked by the daughter of a woman hanged for the murder of the artist Amyas Crale many years before to find out if it was, as she believes, a miscarriage of justice.
Perhaps you have detected a creative theme to my chain this month…?
Author: whatcathyreadnext
#BookReview Hunter Killer by Brad Taylor @HoZ_Books @midaspr
Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Hunter Killer by Brad Taylor, the latest book in his Pike Logan thriller series. My thanks to Sophie at Midas PR for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my review copy.
About the Book
They’re killing his team. He’s coming for them.
Pike Logan and the Taskforce were once the apex predators, an unrivalled hunting machine that decimated those out to harm the USA, but they may have met their match. While Pike and Jennifer Cahill prepare to join their team on a counter-terrorist mission in the triple frontier – the lawless tri-border region where Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay meet – they are targeted in Charleston, South Carolina with a friend losing his life in a vicious explosion. An attack that Pike knows was meant for him.
When he loses contact with the team in South America, Pike is convinced he and the Taskforce are under attack. His men are the closest thing to family that he has, which means he will do anything, even ignore direct orders to stand down, to find them. Pike and Jennifer head to Brazil to investigate their disappearance and run headlong into a crew of Russian assassins. Within days they are entangled in a byzantine scheme involving Brazilian politics and a cut-throat battle for control of offshore oil fields…
Format: Hardcover (448 pages) Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 1st October 2020 Genre: Thriller, Action
Purchase links*
Amazon UK | Hive (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience not as part of an affiliate programme
My Review
Although Hunter Killer is the fourteenth book in the author’s Pike Logan series, it’s the first to be published in the UK. Readers like me who are new to Brad Taylor’s books may be apprehensive about embarking so late on such a well-established series, however I’m pleased to say Hunter Killer works perfectly well as a standalone. In fact, you may find yourself wanting to go back and read the earlier books once you’ve finished it.
The Taskforce are the US Government’s “secret weapon”, a group established to operate outside the law. Recruited from various agencies, they are a highly trained band of so-called “apex predators” used to living on the edge. Their cover is a company that travels the world facilitating archaeological work but their real job is, as Pike puts it, finding bad guys and planting them in the ground.
There are brief references to events in earlier books some of which help to shed light on the Pike Logan of today. He’s a satisfyingly complex figure who has experienced trauma in the past resulting in a constant struggle to control his anger and violent impulses; to avoid letting “the beast run free”, as he puts it. Jennifer Cahill, whom Pike describes as his “partner in crime”, is also his partner in life and, as much as he will let her be, his moral compass. She’s seen only too clearly what the work involved in being a part of Taskforce can do to people and she doesn’t want it to happen to Pike. The other members of the Taskforce team make a great supporting cast, each with their own area of expertise and interesting back stories. They’re a team, but more than that, they’re a family. When one of them is in danger, beware the wrath of the Taskforce.
The opening chapter plunges the reader into the heart of the action and the pace never really lets up from that point on. The author cleverly introduces contemporary issues into the storyline – from the plight of the Rohingya people, to Russian backed terrorist groups, cyber-warfare and election interference. There is an impressive range of technology on display as well, including encrypted communication channels and scarily intrusive surveillance equipment. Oh, and the bad guys are really bad.
In Hunter Killer, the author combines fact with fiction to create a compelling, fast-moving thriller. If it’s non-stop action and an adrenaline-fuelled ride you’re after, then Hunter Killer is the book for you.
In three words: Action-packed, gripping, pacy
Try something similar: The Englishman by David Gilman
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About the Author
Brad Taylor is the New York Times bestselling author of the Taskforce series, with nearly 3 million copies sold. He channels his decades of experience as a Special Forces Commander in the US Army into his thrillers. In the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment – Delta, Taylor commanded multiple troops, a squadron and conducted operations in classified locations.
He holds a Masters of Science in Defense Analysis from the Naval Postgraduate School, with a concentration in Irregular Warfare. In 2011, Brad published his debut novel, One Rough Man, and it became an instant success. Now with more than 14 books, his books have consistently hit the New York Times bestseller list. When not writing, Brad serves as a security consultant on asymmetric threats for various agencies. He lives in Charleston, South Carolina with his wife and two daughters.
Connect with Brad
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
