(Blurb for The Angel from Goodreads) White light. Heat. A drawn-out moment of complete silence. And then the screaming starts.
An Underground carriage in London is destroyed by a suicide bomber. The injured and the dead litter the platform. But as a crowd forms at street level, Michael Pope knows that this is only the beginning.
Pope, head of top-secret Group Fifteen, is tasked with finding the perpetrators of this atrocity and bringing them to justice, any way he can. He knows that the answers to many of his questions will lie at the end of the money trail, but he also knows that whoever funded and organised the attack will kill again for their freedom.
This is an operation that requires a very special kind of agent. Pope needs someone who exists outside of normality. Someone who floats above it, treading softly through a fractured life.
He needs the Angel.
SPOILER ALERT - The Angel spans a couple of books, so don’t expect to reach a conclusion when you end the last chapter. For me, this was a bit disappointing.
So what about the book itself?
Well.. It starts off at a great pace.
Michael Pope head of the top-secret Group 15 is in danger of losing his job and the team disbanded. They have killed an innocent man due to poor information fed to them by the police, but none of this matters. They are sitting before the Intelligence Steering Committee in Whitehall and Heads need to roll.
Meanwhile, a jihadist group are preparing to cause mayhem and destruction around Westminster and have split up. One team have suicide vests, the other guns.
As a suspended Pope and two members of his team walk out of the meeting, the first of the suicide bombs go off near the underground station. This is followed by a second blast in the street as the trio race to check out the first blast.
Dazed after the blast, the team realise that the Houses of Parliament are being targetted and give chase. There follows a firefight within the building and the group 15 team manage to clear the danger.
As I said, a frenetic pace…
The story continues at this speed when Pope is asked to work covertly to bring the people to justice. It’s during this part of the book that Isabella Rose a 15-year-old girl is finally brought into the action. Now, we’ve seen glimpses of her training on her own just outside Marakesh, so we know she’s ready.
The part where Isabella comes into the forefront, however, is when the action really slows down. I can’t say too much more without spoiling the story.
For me, Micheal Pope steals the show certainly in this part of the story. Whether this is still the case in the next book we will have to wait and see. I’m hoping that Isabella comes more into the story in the next part, we’ve seen glimpses of what she can do.
For me, it’s a decent story (well the part that I’ve read is). However, after the frustration of finishing the book, but not the story, for me, it loses a star.
