The Foot Soldiers

Author:Gerald Seymour

This is the second story in the Jonas Merrick series that began with last year’s The Crocodile Hunter. I imagine Jonas as a George Smiley type figure, a desk jockey in MI5, who is a reluctant participant in front line action, but whose sheepish exterior belies a steelier, ruthless person under the surface. Here, a Russian agent hands himself in to the British Embassy in Denmark – but is he genuine or some kind of double agent – and if he’s the real deal, is the information he possesses worth the cost of protecting him for the rest of his life? While the powers that be assess the situation, a hit team is dispatched from Russia to show that traitors to the regime will be tracked down and punished, but their knowledge of where to find their target indicates a mole is at work in the Secret Intelligence Service. Merrick is sent in to MI6 to root out the informant, and in doing so to also strike back at the Russian team on the ground. As with all Seymour’s novels, this one is a little slow to get going initially, but things soon hot up, and overall the novel as a whole moves at a much faster pace than some of the author’s previous work, with quite a lot of action in it. A clever twist at the end when all is finally revealed makes this tale well worth reading if you’re a fan of espionage novels.

Length of Read:Long

Might appeal to people who enjoyed…

Previous novels by the author, espionage thrillers.

One thing you’ve learned

This is, almost unbelievably, Seymour’s 38th novel.

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