I read an awful lot of Tony Parson’s early books, The Man and Boys series in particular being a real favourite of mine, in fact they were so good I read them all a multiple of times. Then after 2010 for some reason he went a bit off of my radar and I don’t know quite why.
I was therefore pleased to see that this book ‘Girl on Fire’ had been released. A totally different genre to his past books I’ve read but never the less a Tony Parsons book. Little did I realise until I was halfway through it, that this was actually the fifth book in the series about DC Max Wolfe. Note to myself for the future, now read the back catalogue of DC Max Wolfe books !!
Wolfe sounds like your typical ruggish DC who will bend a few rules to get results but also has locked away a deep compassionate side to him that bubbles away under the surface and every so often puts its head above the parapet.
Girl on Fire starts in quite horrendous fashion as Wolfe is out shopping at a large London shopping centre buying a new trendy rucksack for his daughter. The world literally comes in on Wolfe and the shopping centre as a large helicopter full of fuel is brought down by a drone controlled by terrorists and it kills and injures a significant number of people.
Wolfe is amongst the injured but within a couple of days he is part of the Met Police team hunting down the terrorists. Following a tip off an armed response team prepare to storm an east London house but things go horribly wrong and the lead officer is gunned down dead in the street and one of the suspects is shot dead by an officer in front of Wolfe, unarmed and in the process of surrendering.
With hatred fuelled against the family members of the terrorists, Wolfe looks for their links to a wider cell whilst trying to protect the other members of the family. At the same time whilst not defending his colleague who killed the unarmed terrorist he doesn’t back him up either much to the annoyance of some of his colleagues.
Girl on Fire is a gripping thriller and the outcome and link to the cell is completely unexpected as Wolfe delves into the family links and past as well as tapping into his network of informants. Despite the helicopter attack sounding a little unrealistic, Tony Parsons writing style gets you hooked into the storyline very quickly and this was a book I did not want to put down. So much so, I read it in two days and for a cruise this is definitely one to read on your first few days at sea whatever the weather and wherever you are on board ship.
For me, Girl on Fire is a good 9 out of 10 read and as mentioned previously, has now left me wanting to go back amd read the previous Max Wolfe novels.
More information on Tony Parsons and all of his great books can be found at :
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/p/tony-parsons/
As ever, I hope that you have enjoyed the review and please feel free to leave a comment on my blog and start following my regular updates.
Canberralover 😊
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