Every country has elite troops, but which are the best in the world? I used to think it was the Gurkhas, but they appear to have faded from the scene. The Russian Spatznaz get good marks, but in this day and time it comes down to Britain's SAS and America's Navy Seals.
HARD TARGET by Chris Ryan 438 pp, 2012 Coronet paperback. Available at Asia Books and leading bookshops, 659 baht
They respectively keep proving themselves on battlefields and covert missions. Still, it was the Seals who took out Bin Loony in Pakistan. But UK novelists play that feat down and continue to award the laurels to their own.
Chris Ryan, bemedalled while with the SAS, has since gained fame as a writer of thrillers _ several about his exploits while with the 22nd Regiment. He allows that more than a few of its officers and men went rogue and had to be put down.
In Hard Target Ryan deals with both _ SAS or Seals, the decent and dishonourable amongst themselves. To his credit, he doesn't overwrite. Still, he can't resist including action in every chapter. Whether in Afghanistan or Brazil, Gibraltar or Siberia, there are shoot-outs and explosions.
At the centre of these fire fights is protagonist Joe Gardner, wounded out of SAS, but kept on his toes by his mates and by MI6, who need his help. In the little time he has to himself there are romantic interludes with Aimee, a foreign correspondent.
Kruger, the ex-Seal, brings to mind the villains in Bruce Willis movies who he keeps killing, but pop up again and again to keep fighting until there is no doubt that Kruger's met his maker _ the propellers of a speedboat. Stopping a shipment of drugs from Holland to England takes many pages to resolve.
Gardner learns that Brits in high places, not least the head of MI6, mean to start a war between Israel and Iran, falsely implying that the nuclear bomb that accidentally blew up in Istanbul was meant for Jerusalem. Can Gardner and Aimee prevent Israel from mounting an air strike on Iran's nuclear facilities?
Either by visits or extensive research, Ryan names a dozen streets in every venue, including the buildings and shops to be found on them. Whatever weapon is used is described in detail down to the bullet, missile or bomb. As if we don't already know it, Hard Target tells us that everywhere in the world is a dangerous place.
The evil among us
THE RETRIBUTION by Val McDermid 496 pp, 2012 Sphere paperback. Available at Asia books and leading bookshops, 350 baht
Evil isn't a term used on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list _ or Interpol's or Scotland Yard's. Dangerous, psychopathic, mad dog, yes, but not evil, which implies satanic. The devil is no longer the fearsome creature from the netherworld, which was exorcised by priests in the not-too-distant past.
Still, it is frequently employed by novelists to describe someone who kills for the sake of killing, mercilessly torturing and mutilating the victim. If and when caught, their justification for their acts is mundane to the point of being childish. But in some ways they are brillant. A dilemma, indeed.
In British author Val McDermid's 25th thriller, The Retribution focuses on as evil a villain as is to be found in literature. The author used Jacko Vance before. Captured by Worcester detective chief inspector Carol Jordan with the assistance of police profiler Dr Tony Hill, he's sworn vengeance _ an empty threat while behind bars, but to be taken very seriously when Jacko escapes.
The killing of young prostitutes picks up knife eviscerations in the Jack the Ripper tradition, but that's not the revenge he promised. Rather, he swore that Jordan and Hill would be made to suffer pain _ physical and psychological.
The author uses stream-of-consciousness to get into the heads of the main characters, including Hill's mum Vanessa, Jordan's brother Eddie and detective sergeant Ambrose. Hill has an on-again off-again _ mainly off-again _ relationship with Jordan, who finds him too indecisive.
Hill and Vanessa, a manipulative former tennis star, are estranged. It goads him that she can wrap any man around her finger while he is socially inept.
Jacko is handsome, his captivating smile belying his lack of human feeling. He succeeds in murdering Jordan's sibling and burning down Hill's home.
But that's not enough retribution to satisfy him. Who will be next? Can Jacko be stopped (caught again or killed)? McDermid throws in an unexpected, yet plausible twist. Critically and popularly regarded as one of the UK's best thriller writers, she once again comes through for her aficionados.
This reviewer seriously doubts that Jacko Vance will reappear down the line. And for your information, there's more than one predator of the demimondaines.
