Ali Karim was a Board Member of Bouchercon [The World Crime & Mystery Convention] and co-chaired programming for Bouchercon Raleigh, North Carolina in 2015. He is Assistant Editor of Shots eZine, British correspondent for The Rap Sheet and writes and reviews for many US magazines & Ezines.
“Under the Radar” is the phrase that comes to mind when considering the plot for this thriller, which actually sums up the author as well. Though, prolific under his own name and the T.W. Ellis moniker – I am surprised that his “Victor the thinking man’s assassin” novels are not as well-known as they should be. Perhaps his latest offering will rectify this injustice. It can be read as a stand-alone action tale without the baggage of backstory, though readers familiar with the series will find this latest instalment revelatory.
The novel is set in the icy Scandinavian territories. The title refers to the problems faced by Victor, who becomes wounded and forced to go ‘Under the Radar’ in Malmö. The Coastal Swedish city becomes a dangerous location for Victor as he needs to lie low, as he recovers from his injuries.
But we’re ahead of ourselves.
Initially, Victor is installed to penetrate a crime family headed by Jorund Hakansson. He encounters a colleague of his handler ‘Lambert’, the mysterious weapons procurer ‘Scragg’. Then there is the dangerous trade in rare ‘Heavy Metals’, and counterfeit machinery.
The action is brutal, with short chapters that make the reader tear through the narrative – which also makes one ponder about what really lies beneath the shadows of an industrial city and the true cost of a green agenda.
There is the Port of Malmö, the secondary characters, the weaponry aesthetics that all form an arachnid’s web around Victor as he realises that the dying Hakansson is far from done.
Apart from the criminal family, there are dangerous politics and international mercenaries including the legendary sniper Celeste Perrot; Lukas Draeger the man tasked with impersonating Jorund’ son Gustavus; Renegade US Ranger Ezra Greer – and soon Victor learns that there is a seven-figure bounty on his head. Rusty shipping containers, disused chemical plants, deserted warehouses, oil tankers and the detritus of decaying docklands become a dangerous backdrop for this game of cat-and-mouse.
Then there’s the Persian Leila Farahani who Victor and Scragg realise may be a cog in the Rare-Earth Metals smuggling, or perhaps not? Trust becomes rarer than the Osmium that is sought, and the mission to take down the Hakansson crime family may be just a veneer or mirage.
And so the tortuous tale makes the reader ponder beneath the ricocheting bullets from the MP7’s as the narrative reaches its climax as Victor ponders -
“Memory is a distraction. Distractions will get you killed.”
These thrillers by Tom Wood are extraordinary and this latest edition is his most engaging.
