For lovers of high-octane thrillers, Vinci Books is printing Kerry J Donovan’s hit series of Ryan Kaine novels, which have been bestsellers as ebooks, starting with On the Run. It means the books will reach a much wider audience – in Barnes & Noble, Waterstones, at airport bookshops like WH Smith, and on Bookshop.org. The author is a former UK government advisor who has helped develop strategies to deal with biological or chemical attacks and his authentic scientific knowledge comes across in the stories, even though they are primarily driven by action.
Originally published in 2017, On the Run introduces Ryan Kaine and the challenges he faces. Kaine is a former member of the Special Boat Service, the Royal Navy’s elite unit, equivalent to the SAS. Now freelancing, he still believes he’s fighting the good fight, taking on jobs that keep the free world a little freer. He’s working for the Principal, head of an organisation he has worked for successfully in the past.
This time Kaine has been hired to foil a terrorist plot. He finds himself sitting in the Herring Gull, a boat six miles off the coast in the North Sea, roughly 25 miles from Hull, waiting for his target to appear in the night sky. Kaine is armed with the latest prototype PAAS-4 rocket launcher, top-end military hardware. When the Principal gives the go-ahead, he locks onto the target and 17 seconds later the plane is obliterated.
Almost simultaneously, two explosions sink his own vessel. Only quick thinking and luck save his life. He’s wounded by the blast but eventually manages to swim back to shore. Now Kaine has one big question: what was so sensitive about the target that the Principal would betray him to cover his tracks and distance the organisation from the operation? When he sees the consequences of his actions in the news the next day he realises he’s actually shot down a commercial airliner with 83 people on board.
Kaine is devastated but there’s no time to relax, the Principal already has teams in the field wiping out all trace of their connection to him and leaving false evidence to suggest that Kaine is a rogue agent and a mass murderer. He has one advantage, at least for a few hours. The Principal doesn’t know he’s still alive.
Angry at being tricked into killing innocent civilians, Kaine is determined to find out why a plane full of people had to die. While he avoids or confronts the killer teams out to get him, Kaine tries to figure out how to get to the Principal. However, he has been identified as the perpetrator of the atrocity and is a wanted terrorist. Every police force in Britain is on the hunt and the major international intelligence agencies want him too.
Only a highly dangerous and diabolical mind could come up with a plan like this, only a corruption corporation would have the resources to cover it up. While the odds are stacked against Kaine making it through the next few hours, let alone coming out the other side, help comes from an unexpected quarter… all may not yet be lost.
There’s a neat conspiracy underlying the plot of On the Run and a few clever twists along the way too, but what’s most appealing is the non-stop action, which never lets up. Kaine is a man of principles and he doesn’t like being taken for a mug, let alone being set up, blown up and shot at. He soon tires of being the mouse in the trap and looks to turn the tables, so it’s time for the Principal to look out. Donovan is keen on action, on land and at sea. He’s particularly good on the nautical side and special forces skills. This is quick and easy but tense and exciting too.
Ryan Kaine’s moral code makes him a likeable protagonist with impressive survival instincts and the narrative keeps you in the moment with him. I’d like to read more in this series based on this first outing, so it’s good to know other titles are planned for 2025 release. On the Rocks is book two and that sees Kaine still a fugitive trying to clear his name and solve another tense international puzzle.
Read our interview with the author here.
Vinci Books
Print/Kindle
£9.99
CFL Rating: 4 Stars
