The Watchman - Softcover

Ryan, Chris

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0712681523 ISBN 13: 9780712681520

Publisher: Century, 2001

Synopsis

Alex is a 36 year old SAS Captain. Recently commissioned from the ranks, he is returning from a hostage-rescue mission in Sierra Leone when he finds himself summoned back to the UK. Someone, it seems, has been murdering MI5 officers. And murdering them in a particularly gruesome and horrific way. A hammer is involved, as is a skinning-knife. The security services, however, are more concerned with the why than the how. Because it is beginning to look as if the killer is an insider, SAS-trained, one of the Regiment's own. The body-count is mounting, and under strict cover of secrecy Alex is ordered to track down and eliminate the killer. To assist him in this task he is assigned an MI5 liaison officer - the attractive but abrasive Tracey Weaver. And so begins a deadly and relentless manhunt. The killer, Alex discovers, was almost certainly an undercover soldier codenamed the Watchman who, in the early '90s, infiltrated the highest levels of the IRA's Army Council. He was - and without doubt remains - a lethally skilful operator. But why is the Watchman slaughtering his way through the upper ranks of the security services? A nightmare chase, a betrayal and a dawn firefight will all ensue before Alex learns the bitter truth: that in the shadowy battlegrounds of the Intelligence wars there is no good and no evil - there are only winners and losers.

About this title

Review:

Readers of Chris Ryan thrillers know exactly what to expect: gritty, pared-down prose with regular doses of bone-crunching action and a hero not usually given to introspection. His books do not inhabit the same atmospheric world as such thriller writers of the past as Graham Greene and Eric Ambler, and he lacks the political sophistication of such current writers as Gerald Seymour. But Ryan knows exactly what his readers want and can always be counted upon to deliver a tough and fast-moving package. And that's very much the case in this latest thriller.

The theme in The Watchman is a duel to the death between an SAS soldier and the man who trained him. Ryan's protagonist, the resourceful Alex Temple, has been recently commissioned from the ranks, and returns from a hostage rescue mission in Sierra Leone to find that someone has been gruesomely murdering MI5 officers, Hannibal Lecter-style (a skinning knife is involved). The security services believe that the killer is an insider, SAS-trained, and Alex is ordered to track him down. As he gets closer and closer to the eponymous Watchman, the body count rises inevitably. This one will glean no literary prizes, but the legion of Ryan fans will devour this as eagerly as they did The Hit List and Zero Option. The villain, too, is a memorably nasty creation. --Barry Forshaw

Review:

"First-rate action thriller" (Express)

"Pure, unadulterated violence-all part of the myth and mystique of the SAS" (Mirror)

"The SAS is to Chris Ryan what horse racing is to Dick Francis - a colourful backdrop of skulduggery, told with a genuine insider information to set it apart from the pack- Warrior class Sherlock Holmes." (Boys Toys)

"Fast-paced, sexy, violent" (Sunday Mercury)

About this edition

• Publisher: Century
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0712681523
• ISBN 13: 9780712681520
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336