Genre: Thriller
Description:
Byron Tibor is highly trained undercover special forces agent. But his
most recent mission in Afghanistan catches up with him. Suffering from post
traumatic stress disorder he enters a military programme to produce the guilt
free soldier...
Author:
Sean Black is the author of the best selling Ryan Lock thriller
series. As research he trained as a bodyguard, worked in a prison and has
undergone desert training. He grew up in Scotland, but spent some of his
childhood in the US. He now lives in Ireland.
Appraisal:
I've had Sean Black on my TBR list for some time and I'm very glad to
have finally got around to his work with Post.
This is a thoroughly enjoyable read that has several major twists and turns
that keeps the reader guessing through to the end. The premise, PTSD and a set
of military enhancements to 'develop' enhanced soldiers could so easily have
become something standard and dull, but the opposite is the case here. It
reminded me slightly of a book I read quite a few years ago called Weapon by
Robert Mason (eventually a film, I think) - but Post is far superior.
Post opens
with a very stressed out man in a bank who kills himself. The police and
military are all over the scene within moments, it's all very shady and the
author creates a powerful tension and mystery that left me wanting to know
more. Then we switch to Afghanistan and we meet Byron during his undercover op
in Afghanistan. It's a major style change, and the first of several. We follow
Byron as he undertakes his op and the repercussions...
Then we hit what at first seems to be a disjointed scene. Byron thinks
he's in Afghanistan, but discovers he is actually outside Las Vegas. If this
sounds confusing, good. I don't want to give any more of the plot away. At this
point I thought Black had lost it, but pushing through discovered this was all
part of the plan. Byron's past and present memories are mixed up and he sets
out to make sense of it all. Again, excellently done.
Overall this is a superior thriller that raises questions in the
reader's mind about humanity and ethics, the power of government and how
soldiers are treated. The characters are excellent as is Black's sense of
place. High tension, powerful mystery cut through with a military theme. The
conclusion is satisfying and draws everything together with perhaps the
potential for a sequel? I hope so.
FYI:
Added for
Reprise Review: Post
by Sean Black was a nominee in the Thriller category for B&P 2015 Readers'
Choice Awards. Original review ran March 15, 2014
Format/Typo
Issues:
No issues.
Rating:
***** Five Stars
Reviewed
by: Keith Nixon
Approximate
word count: 90-95,000 words
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