My favourite character was the "hero" Jonas Merrick, a beautifully understated "conductor", masterminding events from his nondescript backroom lair. In this novel, Merrick’s covert agent knows that, if he is successful in his mission, the son of someone he has become very close to will be murdered horribly by Columbian drug lords. The players were well written and interesting, the plot intrigued and I should have loved it but I didn't. I loved the fact that he seemed so ordinary but was so instrumental to national and international security.

Weather intervenes and the semi-submersible is forced to push on towards a landing on the Spanish Costa del Morte, the coast of death around Cape Finisterre. I appreciate that Gerald Seymour books are all about the gradual build up of tension but this was pedestrian and the pay-off not worth the wait.Also, if the characters were suppose to be bad, then where was the terrible violence that crime families would inflict. Another outstanding and hugely satisfying instalment in the Jonas Merrick series from Gerald Seymour. After thirty odd novels with different protagonists, it's perverse to have such a dull central figure for our first regular character.

As in earlier novels, Merrick acts as a lone wolf and manages to antagonise senior officers in parts of the UK’s law enforcement agencies outside MI5.I found the first 100 pp fairly slow going but the pace picked up very quickly after that and the last quarter or so of this novel is as tense and exciting as any of Seymour’s previous works. Television adaptations have been made of his books Harry's Game, The Glory Boys, The Contract, Red Fox, Field Of Blood, A Line In The Sand and The Waiting Time. Still as querulous and obdurate as ever, he has been assigned to help the fight against OCG (organised crime groups).

In this novel, however, he has found himself moved from handling potential security threats to dealing with organised crime groups and one Liverpool-based one in particular. If this was a character trait, then it would be OK, but all of his characters speak the same way which is implausible. Jonas is unashamadely boring and prickly, an elderly desk warrior who gets his kicks from visiting historical sites in his caravan. London: Jonas Merrick, grey and quiet, alone in a small office, seems an unlikely character to be tasked with bringing down an international drug network. Yet Seymour also endows him with two endearing character traits - his desire to be in on the action at the sharp end, despite his physical limitations that should restrict him to his behind the scenes role, and his angst at the impact his plans will inevitably have on the sometimes entirely innocent people who are caught up in the operations he plans.All told, I left the book with a feeling of disappointment due to both the warm recommendation and the reputation of the author from his ITN reporting days. This is the first book I've read by Gerald Seymour, but I intend to remedy that as I enjoyed it so much. He previously featured in The Crocodile Hunter (in which he dodged imminent retirement by singlehandedly apprehended a would be suicide bomber) and The Foot Soldiers (in which he was loaned to sister service MI6 to help investigate an apparent leak). This is the third book in this excellent series featuring the totally believable and ever so endearing Jonas Merrick.