The Conspirators by G.W. Shaw (book review).

Jacob Meaney is in a bit of a slump. He’s been dumped by his girlfriend as he’s so unsuccessful. He’s pretty surprised to be approached by a slick digital marketer called Eloise who offers a large sum of money for some on the spot translating. How can he refuse?

The offer is, of course, too good to be true. The catch is that he’s taken out of the country and under house arrest in some part of Europe. He’s going to be translating for an oligarch, Bondarenko, who needs to make a deal with an Indian criminal gang to sell a new wonder drug. Bondarenko is a sadistic criminal who takes pleasure in exerting his authority but the new partners have other ideas and there will soon be a power play to take control.

Jacob learns fast that he will need allies to survive when the deal is done but life comes at him fast and he’s soon wishing for his mediocre career without the whole life and death situation.

This is a very enjoyable thriller which takes elements of the world we live in and spins a fantasy on a grand scale. Jacob is not sold to us as some James Bond wannabee but more like an average person stuck in an impossible situation. There is misdirection and quite a lot of edge of your seat moments which bring to mind some of the thrillers from times gone by such as Alistair McLean and Len Deighton and, more recently, Lee Child. This is not quite a techno-thriller but it does share elements of that genre.

I think the characters are more inked in and I felt emotionally attached to Jacob and his allies. It manages to pull some rabbits out of hats and make reading it a worthwhile journey. Shaw has previously written ‘Dead Rich’, a timely thriller about an oligarch falling out of favour. Prior to that he wrote some excellent detective fiction as William Shaw and hopefully will do again.

Sue Davies

July 2023

(pub: Riverun/Quercus, 2023. 400 page hardback. Price: £18.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-52942-007-4)

check out website: www.quercus.co.uk