Thank you to the author, publisher and Love Books Tours for the copy of this book in return for my honest opinion.

Let’s start with the blurb: “I DON’T WANT YOU TO FEEL PARANOID ABOUT ME LYING TO YOU.” An inexplicable suicide… A devastating car wreck… A secret Ministry of Defence facility… Told with pace and tension, STATION HELIX is an exciting and modern novel rooted in the tradition of British thrillers. Alex Hannay makes a shocking discovery which draws him into a perilous world of conspiracy and murder. As operatives from the CIA pursue their own operation on the streets of London, Alex is torn between protecting those who share his secret and seeking retribution for a terrible crime.

Here’s my review: I think it’s fair to say that action thrillers can be rather typecast and have a poor reputation at times. Take any preconceptions you may have and scrunch them into a ball. Now aim for the nearest bin and throw them away. Ok, now you’re ready to meet Ash Greenslade’s Station Helix.

The first chapter, no scratch that, the first paragraph had me hooked. Even minor characters with a bit part in the plot are well defined and memorable, ready to pop up in your memory banks as they become important later on. The action is fast but not rushed, realistic but not mundane. I’ve lost count of how many times I breathed “nooooo” to myself as something happened or a piece of the puzzle fell into place.

I found myself feeling paranoid about every character – were they in on the plot? Were they to be trusted? And were they about to meet a staged and sticky end?

The plot was intricately woven, with not a single dropped stitch that I noticed. The author had an ability to pull me in to the characters’ worlds before spinning me round and pushing me out into the plot, leaving me deliciously dazed and confused about how each interaction fit with the overall picture. Until the next sniper’s bullet, confession or piece of evidence appeared.

I haven’t enjoyed an action novel as much since I first discovered Robert Ludlum’s Bourne series or some of James Patterson’s earlier Alex Cross books a couple of decades ago so I’m giving this a full 5 stars!