In At The Kill

This is the first Gerald Seymour novel I’ve read in ages and the first featuring Jonas Merrick. The character is a bit of a curmudgeon who certainly doesn’t go out of his way to make friends with people, or care two hoots what they think about him. As a consequence, he takes a bit of getting used to, as does the writing style of the author in this particular instance. Merrick though, is motivated by a desire to see bad people pay for their serious misdeeds. That lends this book much of its effective tension building, leading to a dramatic climax. Unusually, each chapter covers events from several characters perspective, almost as if the story was written for the screen. Overall, a gripping read.

This represents the third outing for Jonas Merrick, MI5’s querulous counter-intelligence data analyst. He previously featured in The Crocodile Hunter (in which he dodged imminent retirement by singlehandedly apprehended a would be suicide bomber) and The Foot Soldiers (in which he was loaned to sister service MI6 to help investigate an apparent leak).Still as querulous and obdurate as ever, he has been assigned to help the fight against OCG (organised crime groups). Contrary to what we might infer from watching Line of Duty, this area of work is considered a bit oif a backwater by everyone in the intelligence community. That does not deter Merrick. Having been assigned, he works as assiduously as ever, and the fact that he has a wholly new sphere of external contacts to deal with, does not make him try to be any more gracious or amenable than he has been in the past.He soon finds himself at the centre of a network of informants, undercover operatives and contacts from a collection of police and intelligence services around the globe. Their principal operation is to follow a semi-submersible craft which is transporting a huge volume of cocaine (worth around £300 million at prevailing street prices) across the Atlantic, where it will be collected by representatives of a leading Spanish OCG family, who have been joined by the matriarch of another criminal family based in Liverpool, who see this as a n opportunity to move up into the next league.The story takes the form of several different narratives, each following different characters. I found this initially offered an interesting perspective on the developing plot, although it gradually became rather irritating. Still, the story itself is engrossing, and in many ways almost frighteningly plausible.Merrick is a particularly well drawn character, evoking alternating reactions from the reader. At times I felt a great empathy for his position, being almost ostracised from most of his colleagues. The rest of the time, however, I felt how irritating he would be to work with.I wonder how far Gerald Seymour can extend this series before the personality of Merrick becomes so odious to the reader that they can’t take any more. We are not there yet, but for this reader at least, that point cannot be too far away.

As with the previous two vols of this trilogy it proved a reliable crime read. Sufficiently tantalising to see you quickly through to the end. Slightly slow in some parts.

Supremely developed plot and characters, even down to the cat!Slow burning.Not to be missed.Do not miss this one

I've been reading Gerald Seymour's novels for years and always thoroughly enjoyed them. The Jonas Merrick series is a relatively new, but very welcome, addition to his excellent portfolio of books. In at the Kill is a fast-paced novel and the first outside the "terrorism" genre. Jonas is again at its centre, after being pushed in to the backwater of crime. It's hard to put down as he orchestrates a myriad resources and intelligence sources, to foil major Organised Crime syndicates, and be "In at the Kill". Already looking forward to the next installment.