My Review of Appetite for Risk by Jack Leavers

My Review: 

I was immediately catapulted into an adrenaline fuelled world of post war Iraq and loved it. 

The language is military from the opening line: 'Alpha Victor Two ...' and even though John Pierce is no longer in the Royal Marines he hasn't really left either, it is still his world and like many ex bootnecks John finds that civvy street can be a little dull to say the least. Jack Leavers subtly makes the important point that bootnecks are trained to live off adrenaline and often find the withdrawal difficult and that's with John being one of the lucky ones. He's a different sort of soldier than many that we are seeing in literature at the moment as he's a survivor, is fortunate enough to have a stable home life and is not haunted by past events in his career. This allows the reader to luxuriate in the plot as we get to accompany John on his fraught travels across the war torn and factionalised Middle East.

Leavers teases the reader by adding the extra dimension as to the extent to which John is Jack and Jack is John. This authenticity adds depth to the narrative as you are never in any doubt that Leavers knows the world he immerses us in. The language is what my elderly mother would call 'fruity' but is highly appropriate and makes the reader feel as if they are actually in the thick of the action from the safety of their own settee. The action, when it comes, is never gratuitous and Leavers ensures that it happens unexpectedly ... much like the real world and life.

I would highly recommend Appetite for Risk and thank Emma Welton at damppebbles for inviting me to be part of the blog tour.