Deathlist: A Strike Back Novel (1) Paperback – January 1, 2016

DEATHLIST is the second entry in Chris Ryan's STRIKE BACK series, and it's an improvement on the original installment.The basic plot is that several years after the Beirut operation that served as the catalyst for the original novel, John Porter is now assigned to the Regiment's Training Wing. As a new class prepares to start the Fan Dance, they're brutally attacked and murdered by Serbian elements, assisted by a former Selection washout. Porter and the other survivor, John Bald, are approached by MI-6 with an offer: resign from the Regiment, become private contractors, and hunt down the attackers by any means necessary.There are a few bits where there is gore for gore's sake. Some readers may be put off by that, though I wasn't. I was put off by a character that adhered to some unsavory beliefs and voiced those beliefs regularly without challenge from the other characters, but that was rectified by how that character's story arc was resolved.The reason this falls short and gets 4 stars out of me instead of 5 is that the original novel made it appear that after the Beirut operation, Porter became a drunkard and a vagrant, and then later redeemed himself and went to work for Military Intelligence. Without giving away the plot, it felt like this book ignored that ending and left a plot hole in the series. Whether that was unintentional or by design is up for debate, but I wasn't too keen on that. Additionally, the novel ended a bit suddenly for me and I felt like a more proper denouement would have been in order.Overall, though, I was entertained, and that's really all you can ask for out of a book like this.

Spooks are slime using Operators to do their dirty work. Operators hate Spooks but actually enjoy doing the dirty work. Don't start this one before bedtime. You will not sleep till it is finished.

Good read, and are looking forward to the follow up books. Fair amount of research regarding various war periods on different continents.

Good story line, moves quickly

Great book.

Ok , but a bit basic in the plot

Excellent read - hard to put down - best to date from Chris Ryan

Good read, I love Chris's way of putting things down.

Arrived by the estimated date. Exactly as described.

Good pace, fast changing plot, believable characters. Descriptions of the locations made the background realistic and the detailed actions riveting.

Another great read from the master of his genre.

Great reading as always. Chris Ryan never stops coming with great story lines this book is no exception recommend it to everyone

I'm puzzled by this book. I've read a few of the Danny Black books by Chris Ryan and they're much better than this one. The plot line has the makings of a good read but it wasn't developed with any real depth - it's just a linear series of predictably similar events leading to a fairly predictable ending. I'm not going to give anything away but I also felt fairly indifferent about the motivation of the supposed 'bad guys'. To top it off, the spelling mistakes, poor grammar and typos were the worst I've ever seen in five decades of reading novels. By the end, I came to the conclusion that Chris Ryan was economising by using a substandard ghost writer and by ditching the proof reader. To be fair, I did read it to the end.