Synopsis/blurb ....
"There is a safe, in a house, inside a secure compound in South America.
Your job is to bring me the contents of that safe."
Disgraced security consultant Tom Holt accepts a job from a mysterious lawyer, on behalf of a client named Capricorn.
Holt's team comprises Anil, a safe-cracking ex-con; Ray, a disgruntled logistics man, and Becca, a fiery red-headed thief with as much attitude as she has talent for picking pockets.
On arrival in the alluring Argentine city of Buenos Aires, Holt's past swiftly catches up with him. As he begins to question the client's motives, he finds there are darker, more sinister characters who show loyalty to his employer.
Who is Capricorn?
What's inside the safe?
Tom Holt is about to discover how far he will go to expose the truth, even if it means risking everything, including his own life...
An enjoyable fast-moving thriller set mainly in South America after kicking off in London. Tom Holt has just been sacked after the discovery of his pilfering company funds to fuel his gambling addiction. A visitor makes him an offer he can't refuse. Help recover the contents of a safe and he might just get some semblance of his old life back.
In Buenos Aires he meets the fellow members of his team ... a bent ex-copper, a safecracker and an alluring thief and pickpocket. Some team bonding, team tensions, and past indiscretions come back to endanger Tom and jeopardise the mission. Ergo - a hasty exit.
Montevideo, the job, surveillance, planning, mistrust, obstacles, local help, interference, pressure, more questions than answers, an insider with a different agenda, the job, an outcome, a schism, betrayal, repurcussions, and a few more twists and turns before our conclusion.
I enjoyed the book. I've not visited Uruguay in my reading before, nor spent too much time in Argentina, so it was good to travel somewhere differently. I liked how Tom's past came back to haunt him and intersect with his present. I liked Tom as the main character and I enjoyed the interactions between the other members of the team. Three of the four had secrets and hidden agendas. Two of the four you never quite trusted. The most likeable of the bunch, was also the most straightforward and also the unluckiest.
E. C. Scullion has followed up Intruders with Evaders, a novel which drops later this month. One to look out for I think.
4 from 5
Read - August, 2021
Published - 2020
Page count - 244
Source - review copy via Net Galley
Format - ePUB read on laptop, and a bit on Kindle
The setting for this one interests me, too, Col. And it's always interesting when a main character is multidimensional, as it sounds like Tom is. It's an interesting premise, too, and it reminds me of other books I've read where someone's forced to use skills like lock-picking, safecracking, etc.. That's quite the motivator! Glad you enjoyed this one.
ReplyDeleteThanks Margot. I think the setting helped elevte the book for me.
Delete