Kindle Edition, 311 pages
Published October 14th, 2015 by Tyton Press

This book started off surprisingly good. I normally don’t read a lot of action thrillers, but this one makes me feel like I should up that number.

---

~Goodreads Synopsis~

“When you want to take power, call the SAS.

A right-wing billionaire is standing for Parliament. To help him, he enlists the help of ex-SAS soldier, Gabriel Wolfe. Gabriel left the Army after a covert mission went disastrously wrong and has sworn never to cause another man’s death.
It quickly becomes clear that Sir Toby Maitland’s ambitions extend far beyond a seat as an MP.

When an ex-contact in Swedish Special Forces, now working for MI5, contacts Gabriel, he realises he has little choice but to try to stop his employer’s juggernaut in its tracks.

Drugs, guns and plastique.

Gabriel finds himself embroiled in deals with Hells Angels and a South African arms dealer in the US before the true nature of Sir Toby’s plan is revealed.

This is a fast-paced thriller in the same vein as early James Bond, through Robert Ludlum’s Bourne books to Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series. Expect fast cars, gunplay, nail-biting suspense and enough hardware to start a small war.”

---

Gabriel Wolfe’s the kind of guy I would have hypothetically wanted to settle down with if I hadn’t already been taken. He’s kind, intelligent, funny, a dog lover, a great cook, and, pardon my French/look away now kids: fit as fuck!

Now, Sir Toby Maitland is one of the most despicable creatures I’ve come across in literature…I love it! Seriously, I don’t know what it is with these pompous sack of shit type of guys, but I find myself gobbling it all up while giggling like a schoolgirl.

You can tell this has been written by a Brit (Englishman in this case I believe). The dry tongue in cheek type of humour could be found all throughout the book. I’m not saying it would’ve been less funny if it was written by an American, just a different kind of funny. A few examples I highlighted:

“Five minutes passed. Not long if you’re cruising along an interstate, or watching a TV show: an eternity if you’re sitting with your feet up on a suitcase full of cocaine in a Hells Angels hideout fitted out like some latter-day Hole in the Wall.“

“Yes, well, let’s not waste time debating the rights and wrongs of detonating corpses versus feeding them to pigs. We have bigger issues to deal with now.“

This kind of stuff tends to crack me up. And makes the grand scheme of Sir Toby Maitland something to take less serious as a reader. In fact, I’m not even sure if you could call this a thriller at all. I was certainly glued to the edge of my seat during the action scenes often enough, but I never really felt like I should be scared or anxious. Which, to be clear, doesn’t affect my judgement of the book at all. I’d rather have a good laugh than nibble on my fingernails in distress. And mine aren’t even painted so elegantly like the ones of most of the women in this book.

Speaking of elegant women, I’m definitely not a girly-girl, but the amount of information on weapons and cars was a bit too much for me personally. I even admit to skimming through those kind of parts a couple of times. Which I could do without missing anything important in the storyline. You can see it as a bit of a bonus for people who are interested in the mechanics of an M15, yet it doesn’t truly interfere with the story for people who aren’t.

Something I wondered about throughout the last two-thirds of the book, though, was: the dog. I’m trying not to make a spoiler out of this, yet why? Why oh why?! And what did it add to the story? Was the dog just in there to add a sensitive layer to Gabriel’s personality?

“Even when men he fought alongside, or commanded, had been killed in front of him, he’d never cried. Now, 6,000 miles away from his dog, grief overtook in him a rush.“

That’s the only thing that would explain it to me.

Something I personally had to laugh at was a scene where the Dutch language was being described as ‘phlegmy sounds’. So if you play all of these sounds at the same time, would it sound like a Dutch conference to foreigners? *winks*

Trigger Point was definitely very entertaining; I went through it in no time! There’s plenty of action, the characters are well-developed and Andy Maslen just really knows how to fucking write. I’m giving it 3.5 brownies, rounded up to 4 stars on Goodreads and Amazon. I’m recommending it to people who are already into this genre, but also to everyone who likes a bit of fast-paced action infused with dry humour. Book 2 of the Gabriel Wolfe-series, Blind Impact, will be coming out next month and I’m very curious to see what this next adventure will be about!

One last thing: do Americans still refer to their government as Uncle Sam? I honestly have no idea!

A big thank you to Andy Maslen for proving me with a copy of his book in exchange for an honest review.

Links to the book:

Amazon US
Amazon UK
The Book Depository
Goodreads

---

~About the Author~

Andy Maslen was born in Nottingham, in the UK, home of legendary bowman Robin Hood.
Andy once won a medal for archery, although he has never been locked up by the Sheriff.

He has worked in a record shop, as a barman, as a
door-to-door DIY products salesman and a cook in an Italian restaurant. He eventually landed a job in marketing, writing mailshots to sell business management reports. He spent 10 years in the corporate world before launching a business writing agency, Sunfish, where he writes for clients including The Economist, Christie’s and World Vision.

Andy completed the first draft of his first novel – Trigger Point – in six weeks, after deciding to embrace his destiny and “be” a writer. He has also published five works of non-fiction, on copywriting and freelancing, with Marshall Cavendish and Kogan Page.

He lives in Wiltshire, with his wife, two sons and a whippet named Merlin.

You can find his website here.
Or catch him on Twitter at @Andy_Maslen