Any Minute Now

Author: Eric Van Lustbader Publisher: Head of Zeus (UK) ISBN: 9781784972097

THIS is Van Lustbader’s latest non- Jason Bourne thriller.

Any Minute Now offers a distinctively different narrative that even experienced thriller readers will find a challenge to keep up.

The story is centred around Red Rover, a private security firm known for handling “blacker-thanblack ops”, and is frequently subcontracted by the NSA (the US’ National Security Agency).

Led by Greg Whitman, Red Rover heads to Pakistan in search of a man named Seiran el-Habib. Instead, they walk into an ambush, and suffer numerous casualties along the way.

This prompts Whitman’s superiors to abort the mission. Whitman, however, decides to disobey orders and forges ahead instead.

To replace a fallen team member, Whitman turns to his old contact, Charlie Daou, a weapons expert who makes her own “custom boom-sticks”.

Daou’s weapons are unique in that they’re undetectable, even to scanners.

Meanwhile, Whitman is unaware that Luther St Vincent, one of the NSA’s top dogs, is heading up an experimental operation to chemically engineer and weaponise soldiers.

This requires doctors to play with the soldiers’ brains, which eventually, comes with consequences.

The conspiracies go deeper as everyone seems to be connected in one way or another to a shadowy, mysterious character called the Preacher.

To complicated matters, there’s another player at work, a group called the Alchemists.

Eventually, everything is thrown together in what is designed to be a riveting, supernatural action-drama or suspense novel.

As hard as this book was to get through at times, there are moments of exciting action, a la the Jason Bourne series.

The characters are all interesting and unique, and they related to one another well.

If nothing else, Van Lustbader did come up with an original story, even if it is not one that I expected. – M.L.M.