The Wrecking Crew (Janac's Games #2) [Kindle Edition]

THE WRECKING CREW is a sequel to The Defector, although the two are self-contained and can be read separately. There's only a brief reference in the former to the events in the latter.

In THE DEFECTOR, the reader was introduced to an iniquitous character named Janac, apparently once a member of an elite U.S. special forces outfit, who's taken up a life of vicious criminality and drug dealing in Southeast Asia. A student of sorts of human nature, Janac revels in forcing cruel mental choice games onto more or less innocent individuals that, through bad luck and circumstance, fall within his orbit of power and control. In THE DEFECTOR, the unwilling participant was a former London currency trader named Martin who'd escaped to Thailand after a career gone wrong, and the game involved something called the Prisoner's Dilemma. I gave that book four stars.

The somewhat unique nature of this pair of novels is that it's Janac, the Bad Guy Extraordinaire, whom author Mark Chisnell carries forward into the second installment.

THE WRECKING CREW takes place some 6-7 years after THE DEFECTOR. Janac has now taken up piracy on the high seas, and his unwilling game-player is Phillip Hamnet, the captain of a cargo ship taken over by Janac and his gang. In short, while Phillip manages to escape capture while the rest of his crew is murdered, his pregnant wife, who was along for the boat ride, is taken hostage by Janac and carried off to his home base. With her in his power, Janac forces Phillip to make ruthless choices. How Phillip deals with his dilemma is the book's plot.

In contrast to Mark of the first installment, the reader may find Hamnet a more sympathetic Good Guy. Mark got into his fix with Janac after a series of bad personal decisions back in Old Blighty. In my opinion at the time, Mark almost got what he deserved. Here, Phillip has led a relatively blameless life and was once even judged a hero by society at large. So, it's not difficult for the reader to root for him. In any case, Janac finds in Hamnet a more dangerous, capable, and clever adversary.

THE WRECKING CREW is tautly written and thoroughly entertaining thriller worth every one of the five stars I'm awarding. However, without giving away any specifics, what surprised me was the conclusion.

Mark Chisnell's The Wrecking Crew is an old-fashioned adventure yarn with marine elements and some high-tech twists. The story is very straightforward, if at times far-fetched, but well-paced. If you like plain adventure narrative, this book is for you. If you want more out of your reading experience, you may want to look elsewhere. The prose is no more than competent, and the few attempts at metaphorical writing should have been reined in by a more hands-on editor. Speaking of editing, there are a few howlers that should not have made it into the book (reign for rein, who's for whose come to mind). To describe the characters as one-dimensional would be to invite charges of dimensional exaggeration. The book is set in Southeast Asia, but it could have been anywhere as there is a complete lack of local colour. I received a complimentary copy of this book in order to review it

I thought that The Defector, by Mark Chisnell, was good but this, I think, is even better. No shortage of action, well drawn charecters and very plausible and timely plot. I could feel myself involved in the action. Like his first book,it would make a fantastic film.