The Killing Crew (Ash Carter Near East Series: Book Two) by Murray Bailey

 

The Killing Crew (Ash Carter Near East Series: Book Two) by Murray Bailey.

Published in hard cover 9th November 2021 and ebook 1st March 2022 by.

From the cover of the book:

Ash Carter and Bill Wolfe are in Israel hunting a group of British Army deserters known as the Killing Crew. Some people think they were a myth, others believe they were the most hated of British soldiers.

In the newly formed state that’s at war with the Arab nations, hated by Jews and despised by Arabs, the two SIB officers think they face an uncomfortable task.

But when they become targets they realise this is more than just a job. It’s life or death.

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This second book in the Near East series, prequels to Murray Bailey's thrilling Singapore books, finds Ash Carter now promoted to Captain and back working alongside his SIB boss Tom Wolfe in the newly formed state of Israel.

Carter and Wolfe are here to track down a band of British deserters known as The Killing Crew, but the region in 1948 is a tricky place to be if you are British. Although the conflict between Jewish and Arab forces is currently suspended by a cease fire, the peace is very fragile, threatening to erupt into more violence at any moment - and both sides detest the British following the decision to light the touch paper and then withdraw to let Jews and Arabs fight it out in a bloody war. The odds of getting either side to co-operate with their investigation are slim, but at least they are here with official permission... for now.

Progress is slow, and this is an investigation that requires a painstaking examination of teetering piles of paperwork to get a handle on who's who, and who may or not be responsible for the orgy of terrorist atrocities that have marked recent times. It's hard even to establish whether or not The Killing Crew exist at all, but once Carter and Wolfe's ranks are bolstered by the young, inexperienced Sergeant Finney and their new Jewish assistant Sylvia Rom they begin to see a pattern emerging, with a mysterious figure known as The Engineer at the centre.

Can they get to bottom of what is really going on here, before they become targets themselves?

My favourite thing about Murray's books is the way he drops you right into the chaos of the post-World War Two landscape, creating such an authentic feeling of time and place and exploring the real nitty-gritty of the whys and wherefores of the situation. But if shining a light on the fascinating truth behind some very difficult political and military shenanigans wasn't enough, he mixes this with such gripping mysteries at the same time, that you almost find yourself absorbing all the history contained in his stories by stealth as you desperately pursue the answers to Ash Carter's investigations.

I learned so much about 1950s Singapore in the Ash Carter series, and the Near-East prequels are shaping up to be just as entertaining and informative, starting with the last book Cyprus Kiss and continuing with this new adventure The Killing Crew.

Inevitably, Bailey does spend quite a lot of the first half of this book making sure you understand the political tensions and violence that marked the bloody birth of the state of Israel. Even though I did know quite a lot about the lay of the land in the Middle East at this time, there was so much more to learn and Bailey deftly walks you through what things were really like on both sides of the conflict, while emphasising the hatred and resentment towards the British. I confess I did not know about the scale of desertions from the British Army, with soldiers defecting to both sides of the conflict for a variety of reasons, but found the idea that many were persuaded to join the Jewish ranks after what they had seen of Hitler's concentration camps both intriguing and particularly poignant.

Of course, Bailey is also a dab hand at a darned good thriller, so Carter gets himself involved in a bit of bother right from the word go that threatens to derail the investigation, and forms a nicely contrived sub-plot around some unpleasant gangster types which touches on the plight of post-war refugees. The threads of the central mystery gradually reveal themselves, and they become ever more complex as the story goes on, until you suspect almost everyone of dirty deeds and do not know who Carter can trust - even down to those very close to him. There are twists galore as Murray misleads both you as the reader and Capt. Carter; all the chases, back-stabbings and explosions you could possibly want; and lashings of the tension and intrigue I have come to expect from Bailey's cracking novels, with the added menace of a war-zone this time around too. 

It's fair to say that this is a slow burner, but each and every part of this storyline builds beautifully towards the whole, and the pay-off of Bailey's detailed and very necessary groundwork comes once the sparks start to fly, unleashing a tide of chaos packed with action and surprisingly affecting emotion. This is certainly another highly enjoyable page-turner from Murray Bailey, and I am really looking forward to what he has in store for Carter next as he heads back to Cyprus!

The Killing Crew is available to buy now from your favourite book retailer.

Thank you to Murray Bailey for ending me a ecopy of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Murray Bailey Is the author of Amazon bestseller Map of the Dead, the first of the series based on his interest in Egyptology. His main series however is the Ash Carter thrillers, inspired by his father's experience in the Royal Military Police in Singapore in the early 1950s.

Murray is well travelled, having worked in the US, South America and a number of European countries throughout his career as a management consultant. However he also managed to find the time to edit books, contribute to articles and act as a part-time magazine editor.

Murray lives on the south coast of England with his family and a dog called Teddy.