Ruthless freelance professional assassin Jenks is hired by an ultra-top secret government agency – responsible for the dirtiest of work – to kill a rogue CIA analyst and prevent a super Wikileaks-like dissemination of catastrophic above Top Secret explosive revelations, capable of overturning the world order.

Using the most ingenious of spycraft, the chameleon like Jenks has no option but to let the crime play out until the very end. With the action taking place simultaneously between Soho, London and Virginia, USA, Jenks hurtles towards the ultimate confrontation and sacrifice – his pedal to the metal race to uncover the truth will leave you gasping.

What did you do in the Covid lockdowns? Well, Barney Burrell used his time to write Jenks, his first novel and pretty good it is too.

As the synopsis says, Jenks the character is prepared to take on the dirtiest of work, available for hire by all and prepared to break conventional law to achieve a goal. He is fit, intelligent and solitary like all the best heroes. I also like the name that Burrell has chosen; short and memorable.

Indeed, the author has an ability to choose names. I appreciated the fictional Welikeleaks organisation name although if you are like me you will constantly read it as the real-life organisation!

Having lived at times in north and north-east Kent I appreciated the familiar settings in and around Whitstable and the east London/Essex areas. I did however wonder about Jenks run along the sand on Brighton beach. The last time I looked it was nothing but pebbles.

I found the going a little shadowy at the beginning of the book and the references to the “Englishman” confusing. Was Burnell referring to Jenks or Camburn? Thankfully it is all clarified by the end. In the early chapters the US part of the story seemed to have a better flow and greater depth to the characters. These passages also gave some interesting 70’s soft rock references.

The denouement has the expected strong violence and some cameos by world famous real persons. I cannot give you any more details but given the current (March 2022) situation the outcome of the telephone call in the final chapter made me chuckle.

I believe Barney Burrell keeps busy dabbling in antiques but hopefully he will find time to give us another Jenks adventure sometime soon.

Barney Burrell now lives a quiet life in view of the sea after a lifetime of doing this and that. Cutting his teeth in the newspaper industry in the late 70s-early 80s, he went on to open menswear shops until the big recession at the tail end of the 1980’s caused everything to crash and burn leaving him bankrupt with three children under five.

In later years he has dabbled in buying and selling vintage and antique items, particularly enjoying the restoration process. He is often to be found around the auction houses of Kent, ferreting around in dusty corners in search of something interesting and different, or when not writing, down in his shed working on his latest project and having a crafty Toscanello.