Savage Games by Peter Boland - Review

To round off my wee focus on all things Savage, I'm made up to be sharing my review of Savage Games by Peter Boland today, which also happens to be publication day! I just loved this book, and it has been one of my reading highlights of this year so far.

You may well have seen the book information in my previous related posts, but in case you missed it, I'm including it as usual.

The Blurb:

A body concealed high up in a tree.
A dark forest that holds many secrets.
One man determined to discover the truth.

Deep in the New Forest, a body is hidden in the branches of a towering fir tree in an area known as Dead Maids Wood. When John Savage learns that the body belonged to an old school friend, he sets out to discover who was responsible.

Together with brilliant computer hacker Tannaz, he discovers his friend was down on his luck, living among those who society would rather forget - the dregs, the desperate and the homeless. Entering this dark and hidden world, Savage soon discovers that the death of his friend was just the tip of the iceberg...

Savage Games is a fast-paced action thriller for fans of Lee Child and David Baldacci.

It is published by Adrenalin Books today and is available to purchase here.

You can find my review of Savage Lies, the first book in the series, here. Peter's fabulous guest post about the inspiration for Savage is here, and my Q&A with the main man himself, John Savage, is here.

My Review:

The first book in the John Savage series, Savage  Lies, was one of my favourite books of 2018. Peter was a new author to me, but the book just blew me away. So imagine my delight at getting my hands on this, the follow up. 

John Savage is back, maybe a year after the end of the first book. He's getting older and feeling it but, for me at least, he's still pretty hot! 

Tannaz, the talented young hacker from book one, features heavily in this book, but don't worry if you haven't read Savage Lies (although you really should because it's freaking awesome) as this works fine as a standalone. Anything you need to know from before, you find out. She's fabulous and I love her relationship with Savage. There's no romance nonsense, just two people who love and respect each other as friends. And the rapport between them is brilliant. 

A young man turns up at Savage's door. He's the son of an old friend who's recently died, in a slightly odd fashion. What starts out as a simple favour for Luke soon turns much darker when Savage discovers a whole underground culture. 

I don't want to tell you too much about the story because I really want you to discover it for yourself. I can tell you that it gripped me from the beginning, and I had no idea where it was going to take me. The cast of supporting characters are certainly colourful and wonderfully described. I thought Dink might break my heart, and everyone will feel for Archie, the wee guy with a drink problem. But he has a secret...

For me, the scene setting is as important as the characters and story, and here it is done beautifully, particularly in respect to the estate where Luke's father spent his last  days, and the forest where some of the action takes place. That's a really creepy place, I can tell you! There are references to films scattered throughout the book, but a couple of scenes also brought other movies to mind, specifically a little bit of Escape from New York (1981) and Hard Target with Jean-Claude Van Damme (1993). I'll let you work out which scenes I'm referring to when you read the book.

The pace builds from the beginning, as does the action. Savage was a skilled soldier, and it shows. But some of the things he discovers are horrific, and sometimes a little uncomfortable and difficult to read. But that's down to the writing being so descriptive. When I reviewed Savage Lies, I said I thought it was very current. And I feel very much the same about this book - it's a story for our time. It's extreme, but it shows vulnerable people can be exploited, and that certainly happens in our society today.

So I have been deliberately obtuse about the story as I don't want to spoil anything, but I can safely say this will be one of my books of the year. And it was only February when I read it! It's clearly well researched and will have you reaching for Google to check things out. It's original, exciting, gripping and dark. Violent and shocking in places. But it's very human, with plenty of emotion. 

Basically, I loved everything about this book! It's another triumph for Peter Boland and he should be very proud. Go out and read both books! And me? I CAN'T WAIT to see what John Savage gets up to next!

The Author:

After studying to be an architect, Pete realised he wasn't very good at it. He liked designing buildings he just couldn't make them stand up, which is a bit of a handicap in an industry that likes to keep things upright. So he switched to advertising, writing ads for everything from cruise lines to zombie video games.

After meeting his wife Shalini and having two awesome children (their words), he was amazed when she sat and actually wrote a book. Then another and another. They were good too. Really good. So he thought, I'll have a go at that.

He soon realised there's no magic formula. You just have to put one word in front of the other (and keep doing that for about a year). It also helps if you can resist the lure of surfing, playing Nintendo Switch with your son, watching America's Next Top Model with your daughter and drinking beer in a garden chair.

Thanks so much for following this focus on the John Savage series - I really hope you enjoyed the different posts. Over the next couple of weeks, as well as my blog tour posts, I will be focussing on No Man's Land by Neil Broadfoot and What She Saw Last Night by MJ Cross (Mason Cross) - I hope you'll be able to join me.