Black Run

From the moment John Tyler’s speeding car hurtles off the opening pages and on to the quays of La Rochelle, Black Run grabs the attention like a fire alarm and never lets up. Taking its cue from the novels of Alistair MacLean, but updated for the age of the action hero Jason Statham, it pits gunslinger Tyler against a gang of neo-fascists whose leader he has nabbed in the Alps.

What makes DL Marshall’s sequel to Anthrax Island stand out from the present crowd of ask-questions-later hardmen is his smartly observed use of settings. Black Run cuts between Tyler’s stake-out for the extraordinary rendition in the icy mountains and the subsequent pursuit by land and sea. His plan is to smuggle his target back to Britain via a rust-bucket freighter, but the crew can’t be trusted and there’s stormy weather in the Bay of Biscay.

With the bad guys closing in as well, soon there’s double-crossing galore on the ocean wave, not least as the physically and psychically damaged Tyler has his own hidden agenda. Yet while the confrontations are near video-game relentless, Marshall confidently incorporates sufficient ingenuity and off-piste wit to temper the high body count. Fresh powder.