With his trademark, slow-burn story - ultimately slight in nature - and a largish cast of well-drawn characters, expertly executed.

However he again retains his deep engagement and concern with those agents undercover at the front line. I think I've read all of Gerald Seymour's books but find this and the other Jonas Merrick books tough going. But while Jonas’s colleagues regard him as scratchy, fastidious, old, he is also ruthless, cunning and brutally pragmatic. As usual our hero to the possible detriment to his own health gets a little too close to the action.Sidelined by his security service bosses to work on organised crime, he tracks a cocaine-packed submersible and the crime families betting their empires and vanity on its cargo. I understand that this is the third book in a series - although I haven't read the earlier novels, I felt that this book worked just fine as a standalone. Another outstanding and hugely satisfying instalment in the Jonas Merrick series from Gerald Seymour. Contrary to what we might infer from watching Line of Duty, this area of work is considered a bit oif a backwater by everyone in the intelligence community. The amazingly boring gray civil servant Jonas Merrick turns out in an unbelievable fashion to be the real James Bond.

At times I felt a great empathy for his position, being almost ostracised from most of his colleagues. Television adaptations have been made of his books Harry's Game, The Glory Boys, The Contract, Red Fox, Field Of Blood, A Line In The Sand and The Waiting Time. After thirty odd novels with different protagonists, it's perverse to have such a dull central figure for our first regular character. Weather intervenes and the semi-submersible is forced to push on towards a landing on the Spanish Costa del Morte, the coast of death around Cape Finisterre. I found this initially offered an interesting perspective on the developing plot, although it gradually became rather irritating.

Still as querulous and obdurate as ever, he has been assigned to help the fight against OCG (organised crime groups).