Black Ops by Chris Ryan, Book Review

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After a series of gruesome murders in geographically disparate places, the SAS soldier Danny Black is tasked with searching for the killer. This quest takes him from his regimental base in Herefordshire to Wales, Lebanon and ultimately into the middle of the conflict in Syria.

Despite Black Ops being on the gruesome side for me, I couldn’t put it down. Partially thriller, partially spy novel and lots of military ground ops action with a twist to boot, it makes compulsive reading.  Black Ops is book number seven in the Danny Black series, and still no let-up on engagement, excitement and thrills. Yes, it’s fiction, but it’s also based on reality, and that makes the horrors even more horrible. It’s not an orc fighting an elf, this isn’t fantasy.

We might hear in the news that another terrorist attack has been foiled, but we soon forget the news item and move on with our more or less virtuous lives. We think we know about the difficult morally ambiguous decisions our operatives have to make in the field and their leaders in the command rooms, and whilst we benefit from these decisions, we’d really rather not have to think about them so that we can take the moral high ground – not in my name.

In the dim and distant past, I used to teach a few SAS soldiers and found them very personable and dedicated. I wasn’t surprised when they disappeared suddenly and knew why they didn’t talk about their work when they returned. I never asked about the cause of injuries they brought back like souvenirs. There might not be a real live Danny Black, but I can put faces to some of the characters in the novel, and names to their children or wives.

Reading Black Ops, with its pacey sparse style so suited to an action thriller, you get the sense that the author knows what he is talking about. I still smile at the description of the head of MI6. Lee Child once said that if you really hate someone, put them in a book and give them a small dick. Chris Ryan does it his way, with equally satisfying results. I bet there is lots of history between the SAS and MI6, and lots of jostling for power and supremacy.

The author, Chris Ryan, is a former SAS corporal and was the only man to escape death or capture during the Bravo Two Zero operation in the 1991 Gulf War. For this, the longest escape and evasion in SAS history, he was awarded the Military Medal.

Published in hardback and Ebook (£18.99) by Coronet in August 2019.