Exile: The explosive Sunday Times bestselling thriller from the author of NOMAD

🅑🅞🅞🅚 🅡🅔🅥🅘🅔🅦 🅞🅕 𝗘𝗫𝗜𝗟𝗘 by James Swallow ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Mark Dane, former MI6, now working for Europol searching for nuclear weapons smuggled out of post-Soviet Russia. Two Croat brothers who profit from the sales of fake nuclear weapons. A Somali war Lord whose belief in his god and revenge would cause the world to burn. And a disgraced Russian General with a real nuclear weapon. Their lives destined to collide with such force with global implications. Mark works it out and realises the awful threat, but with his agency's distrust of his actions, it may be down to him to deal with this threat himself. But he can't do it alone, and even then he may be unable to prevent such devastation. I've been looking forward to reading this sequel to Nomad for a while, clocking down my TBR list until i got to it, and WOW! Definitely worth the wait. Now this book functions extremely well as a standalone novel, however I'm glad i read its predecessor first. It gave me a better sense of the characters' personalities, which helped enrich my enjoyment and gave better context of relationships and supporting characters. I often say I want to be able to visualise a scene as if I'm a fly in the wall. James Swallow is one of those authors who makes that easy, and the story was all the better for it. On a few occasions my suspension of disbelief slipped, car chases in particular, but that didn’t affect my enjoyment of the book on the whole. I do like Mark Dane, and his occasional partner, former US Delta Force operator Lucy Keynes. They seem to work together seamlessly, and I disliked many of the other characters as appropriate. The story was well thought out and a joy to read, hence the five stars. Overall I think James Swallow has improved on the impressive Nomad with this book, and look forward to carrying on with the Mark Dane series. Taking all of that into consideration, I would happily recommend Exile to and action thriller reader, but with the caveat that reading the books in order gives a richer reading experience.

Hugely entertaining, high-octane spy action thriller. The Somali pirates and the underground world of gunrunners are well researched and make the baddies all the more convincing. My only criticisms are that the hero is not that likeable; I also find the all-powerful, privately funded, rich-beyond-limits Rubicon spy agency set for the benefit of mankind too far-fetched - as is its nemesis organisation, the Combine. Still, I can't wait for the 3rd instalment to discover what new world threat Mr James Swallows will conjure up for genius hacker-cum-action-man Marc Dane to solve...

I loved this book. This and nomad, his previous book were nearly impossible for me to put down. I was awake until 3am reading this book. Fast paced, intelligently written, a fantastic spy-thriller for the modern era. I can't wait to see where this series goes.