The Operative by Duncan Falconer

Another novel I picked up at random, The Operative is the first book I’ve read by Duncan Falconer and I doubt it’ll be the last. As an ex-SBS operative, he’s going to get the inevitable comparisons to Andy McNab but in my opinion he’s better.

It’s a fairly standard army-based thriller with a loner combatant ending up using his skills (explosives, in this case) outside of the war zone to help resolve a personal conflict. The level of technical detail is just about right – not too much to sound like the author’s showing off, not too little to make it sound like he read it somewhere and is shoe-horning it in.

I’d put it at around the level of Jerry Bruckheimer for believability – and also enjoyability. There’s plenty of destruction, the bad guys (of course) get their’s and the FBI and CIA end up at each other’s throats.

Granted, it’s all silly – but the important thing is that it’s entertainingly silly and easy to read. I know Falconer has a couple of other books out and I’ll be checking for them in the second hand places once I’ve ditched a few from the pile I’m already carrying.