Target Zero

Former Metropolitan Police close protection officer (modern-speak for bodyguard) Mickey Bale is back in London after a year in Thailand. He left his job under something of a cloud, despite having been awarded the George Cross for his bravery in saving the life of a senior politician. There were – and still are – persistent rumours that Mickey had also gone on a revenge rampage against a gang boss who supplied the drugs that were responsible for his sister’s death. Naturally, that’s something he’ll neither confirm nor deny. Officially, at least.

Also in London is former SAS major, James Cavendish, injured in the same attack that saw Mickey take a bullet for his principal. Cavendish is now with MI5 working as a liaison officer with his former colleagues. He’s given the task of infiltrating Mickey into a job with Russian oligarch Pavel Salagin, believed by MI5 to be involved with terrorist threat against Britain, using some very serious military hardware known as Sunburn missiles. One has already been detonated, killing a member of a police armed response team on the M11. The security services believe that was only a precursor to some even more high-profile attacks, so Mickey needs to get close to Salagin and earn the man’s trust.

That’s not Mickey’s only problem. He’s also being blackmailed by another crime boss who wants Mickey to do his dirty work and clean up the problem of some former soldiers who are muscling in on his patch. It’s a distraction that Mickey really doesn’t need, but he can’t ignore a threat to his family.

Target Zero – a reference to the grand finale planned by the terrorists – is the second in what has now become a series featuring Mickey Bale, a man in his 40s, carrying around a remarkably small amount of personal baggage. His marriage has failed, but that’s about it. He’s not alcoholic, doesn’t do drugs and doesn’t seem to have PTSD. In short, he’s a massively refreshing change from the current crop of overly damaged macho main characters in cop and action thrillers and I’m already firmly hooked on the series.

I had to overcome one minor obstacle with the first book, and that’s Anthony Riches’ writing style. He uses short, sharp sentences. Few if any commas. Lots of short sentences. Loads of full stops. No speech tags. Get my drift? OK, that’s enough of that. Normal sentence structure will now resume… Once I’d got used to the staccato delivery, I was very glad I’d persevered, so I knew what I was letting myself into this time. The only minor problem I still had with the style is that without some ‘he said’, ‘she said’ help there were times when I had a problem working out who was speaking as actions and words aren’t always correctly grouped.

Where Riches excels is in attention to detail. The descriptions of Salagin’s London mansion and his car collection contrived to be both mouth-watering in their opulence and repulsive in their conspicuous consumption. Mickey is a sponge for detail and I enjoyed being a fly on the wall for the frequent verbal battles between him and Salagin and the oligarch’s unpleasant head of security. The insight into the world of the close protection specialist where details are quite literally lifesavers was absolutely fascinating.

Target Zero is a first-rate thriller that zips along at a hell of a pace, with likeable, believable characters, a down-to-earth feel and plenty of authentic details. Riches stays clear of all the irritating tropes and avoids turning Cavendish into the sort of upper-class twit so often trotted out as the standard MI5 handler. The former SAS major is as hard as nails and has no qualms whatsoever about some distinctly off the books action when the devil drives. I like him a lot. And would like to keep him. Please.

This really is a quality action triller and I’ll be the first in the queue for the next book in the series.