When I got into reading one of the first espionage series that I got into was the Scot Harvath series by Brad Thor.  Backlash is the 19th book in the series and if the bro-mance spy thriller type books are your bag, as Austin Power's would say, then "this should be in your bag, baby".

Without getting into the story, this is your typical Scot Harvath story, told by Armand Schultz.  Backlash picks up where Spymaster ends, and finds Scot in hot water in a very cold place.  The story is good, and every Scot Harvath fan should be happy when finished.

Picking up the picture, and his glass, he headed outside. The sun was almost low enough to touch the water. He wanted to watch it disappear. Then he wanted to start thinking about what he was going to do next.

 

Cue the contemplating music. 

Little Sister is the last in Volume 1 of the Group Fifteen Files and has probably the least written about them. Usually, the protagonist is a member of Group Fifteen and the antagonist is a mercenary or government agency with an agent in Britain that was up to no good. This time we find Finley Karsh, the owner of a hedge fund company called Lochalsh Capital, being blackmailed by a former employee or at least attempted to be blackmailed but Karsh knows how to handle the situation, and he handles it with a historical luger. He handles it with murder. Karsh is in accompaniment with his right-hand man Jesse Brunner and their girlfriends Olya and Gudrún.  Olya gets suspicious and leaves her boyfriend Jesse when they return to London, but she cannot persuade Gudrún.to leave Karsh.  Keeping up?

Now enter the hero of our story, the big, and I mean big brother of Gudrún, an Icelandic native and former British SAS member Björn Thorsson now getting his masters at University College London studying old Norse and doing some language classes on the side. Enter Olya, a woman he never liked because of her influence on his younger sister, to get him to talk Gudrún into leaving Karsh.

Now to convolute my review more Karsh has a contract out on him from a rival mining company because they are both bidding on some mining project in a country nobody has ever heard of, so Group Fifteen is called in to protect Karsh, kill the mercenary with a 100% kill rate record and in the end save Queen, Country and the British way of life.

No more spoilers, the book is only 126 pages and takes a little over a couple of hours to read. Mark and Mark cram a lot into this little book and it comes out to be like the other books in this series, a little better than average read.

As for the books, if you have Kindle Unlimited you borrow the books for free or for a limited time buy the Volume for only 99 cents, which I did.  I wonder who gets the 99 cents?

I rate this book 3 stars.  Like I said it is a good read worth reading if you are into this genre,

Little Sister by Mark Dawson w/ Mark Ridpath

This is the second novella in the Group Fifteen Files written by Mark Dawson with the help of some of his peers.  This book was better than the 1st, which wasn't bad and now I'll go the last as of this date, Little Sister.  All of these can be read for free on Kindle Unlimited at this time.

Witness X starts out with an attack on a woman for no apparent reason but when MI5 starts digging into everything they bring in the people that pulls the trigger, Group Fifteen.  Control, the man that oversees Group Fifteen calls for the one man that can get to the bottom of everything, Twelve, or the under suspension Bryan Duffy.  The reason Duffy is brought in is because of this attack was personal. The attack was carried out by a North Korean agency equivalent to Group Fifteen and espionage was a reason for them to kill anybody that would get in their way.

Dawson and Mariani pack 104 pages full of action and very little wasted space.  So far if this is a genre you like then I suggest this little novella series as "Group Fifteen Files, Volume 1" be added to your reading list if you want something quick to read.

Witness X by Mark Dawson and Scott Mariani

A Group Fifteen Novella (Group Fifteen Files Book 2)

If you've noticed anything about what I read is that I love series and that is 99% of what I read.  Last year I started reading the Eddie Flynn series by Steve Cavanagh and I was impressed by how good the series is.  When I saw that Steve was attached to this book and after I read the description I thought I would read the three novellas that are out now under the series name "Group Fifteen Files" which Dawson uses different writers.  How much Cavanagh and the other writers contribute I have no idea, but what the heck, go for it.  I've never read any of Dawson's John Milton books but I probably should add them to my ever-lengthening list.

This novella is written bouncing back and forth between the protagonist, John Milton, and the antagonist, the Scorpion, and every now and then third person.  Milton's job is to kill the Scorpion and the Scorpion's job is to kill 3 people. A Saudi prince, a former war correspondent Hailey Banks, and a third unknown person.  Milton's job is to catch the Scorpion when he goes after Banks.  Like most books, it see-saws the advantage between the main characters to see who comes out on top, or in a book's place in the last chapter.  It's sort of easy to guess who makes it to the last chapter.

If you want a nicely written spy novel that you can read in a couple of hours then give Scorpion a shot. I'm sure a lot of you have read some of the John Milton series (no, not Paradise Lost) and are familiar with the character.  I'm not. 3 stars from me for Scorpion.

Scorpion by Mark Dawson w/ Steve Cavanagh

A Group Fifteen Novella (Group Fifteen Files Book 1)

I decided to re-read one of the books that I guess you would call bro-mance books.  Spy thrillers were the All-American hero can't be slowed down or killed. Secret Service Agent Scot Harvath escapes avalanches, numerous concussions, gun battles, freezing water and saves our democracy and gets the girl in the end. 

I think the only reason I like books like this was that I was brought up on Roy Rogers and John Wayne movies and this genre are just like those old westerns except modernized for today's way of life.

I won't really review it, I just wanted to get the audio-book and read along so I had to search for the best deal.  I just wished the library system I belong to had a better and bigger choice on audio-books.  I'll probably save some money and do the next book in the series, Path of the Assassin.

Lions of Lucerne by Brad Thor

Scot Harvath series book 1