Rise of the Enemy

Rise of the Enemy is the second and clearly not the last in the Carl Logan series. But the very beginning of the book is indicative of the overall weakness. We find Logan and Dmitri, rather vaguely described as ‘a double agent who worked for the Russian FSB’, going through a security check to gain access to RTK, the biggest manufacturer of military technology in Russia.

They are going to meet a man who worked for RTK. This man had been targeted by Logan, who had got him involved with a prostitute and then threatened and blackmailed him into getting them into RTK.  Apparently he had access to RTK’s most confidential files and papers, but there is no hint given as to what these were or why Logan and Dmitri are trying to get into the plant.

However, whatever it was, things go wrong immediately and they are taken prisoner. It then becomes obvious why the author didn’t give any detailed reasons for Logan’s mission. His real intention was to deal with his imprisonment in the wilds of Siberia.
 
One off-putting aspect of the writing is the tendency towards repetition. This is particularly noticeable when we are being told of the personal demons in Logan’s mind. We are constantly being assured that he owes a huge debt to Mackie, who had taken him off the streets and provided him with a legitimate outlet for his violent nature in the form of the secret services.

But it is difficult for the reader to appreciate the nature of that relationship when Mackie, who clearly had a large part in the first novel, scarcely appears in this one. Similar comments can be made about his lost love, Angela Grainger, of whom Logan is constantly thinking and who still influences his actions. This inability of the novel to stand alone and to make sense in its own right is distracting.
 
Nor is this repetition confined to characters and incidents from another novel. There is the constant self-questioning about the way in which Logan was betrayed and we are told time and time again something that is evident almost from the beginning - that nobody can be trusted. The reader is led to expect - rightly or wrongly - that there will be some dramatic revelation of the betrayer and it comes as something of a let-down when it turns out to be somebody we have never heard of until the end of the novel.

Repetition of a different kind occurs as the author tries to place the novel in its context. We are constantly being told of the intense cold of the Siberian winter and nobody seems to be able to go anywhere without being frozen almost to the point of death.
 
In terms of construction there is a certain originality in the use of flashback. We are told in the prologue that Logan is at liberty but, since he was taken by the Russians at the very beginning, we need to understand how he is free and what had happened to him in the three months of his imprisonment. The author achieves this by alternating chapters of flashback with up-to-date narrative.

However, it cannot be said that the attempt to construct a coherent plot is completely successful and it is possible to reach the end of this novel without being able to provide an accurate summary of what has been going on. So conscious is the author of the fact that he is writing a spy thriller that he makes it far too complicated. No doubt the three intelligence services had their own motives but it is not clear what they were. The other annoying feature of the writing is the author’s habit of trying to provide a cliff-hanging end to almost every chapter.
 
But if the plot is unsatisfactory, the characterisation is even more so. Essentially there are only two people developed in any detail - Logan himself and Lena. The latter is entirely a villainess, with no redeeming traits. Logan himself seems to have taken a leaf out of Jack Reacher’s book and is quite prepared to be not only as brutal as necessary, but also brutal for the sake of it. He goes much too far, however, when he deliberately kills somebody in such a way as to make the death slow and painful. We do not expect spy heroes to be saints but they should be - at least in some way - likable and Logan simply isn't.