In At The Kill (Jonas Merrick series)

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Ray Lonnen as Captain Harry Browne in the television production of Harry’s Game, 1982. Photograph: ITV/REX He makes no great literary claim for his books – he demurs when I say some critics have said he should be talked about in the same breath as John le Carré – but he does stand by their factual accuracy and seriousness of intent. They have to entertain – otherwise he has no audience – but he also wants them to inform.

The daily horrors of the Troubles made for compelling television. “News [in the early 70s] dealt in pictures much more than it does today,” says Seymour. “We used to try to make little films that just told a story of an event that day. Not of any great political significance, but just a little snapshot. Open a window, show what happened, close the window.

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This was a very enjoyable read. The plot is very well thought out and takes place in multiple locations - all extremely well researched and described, with the various strands being gradually woven into place. The sense of tension and intrigue continues throughout. But while Jonas's colleagues regard him as scratchy, fastidious, old, he is also ruthless, cunning and brutally pragmatic. And he has a man on the inside: a would-be money-launderer on that wild Spanish coast. A man who has been undercover for so long, he has almost forgotten who he really is.

This observation is made without rancour, though it is evident Seymour is no fan of the rash of police procedurals that have replaced the thriller writers of old. What does bother him is that the decline of the thriller might reflect a degree of complacency on the part of the public. “I think that for all the huge growth in international tourism, we’ve become a lot more insular. The wrinklies are pouring on to aeroplanes to go off and look for exotic animals in rainforests, but maybe the number of people who are living in quite difficult circumstances abroad has gone down.” For No Mortal Thing he went to the towns and villages of Calabria to sniff out the story – he always talks about writing stories rather than novels. He didn’t, perhaps fortunately, encounter any members of the ’Ndrangheta (in the book, one of the clan’s rivals is fed alive to ravenous pigs). But he filled his notebook with material from other people he met while there. “I go to court, which is always a good place to start. I also met a prosecutor, a judge, a senior carabinieri officer, and a chap from the anti-mafia organisation.”

The structure is typical of Seymour novels. The story bounces around frequently between the main characters, as does the POVs. However all the threads draw together inexorably. Also typical is that Seymour does not do happy endings. There is always some tragedy involved and this novel is no different in that regard.

Stars ~ ‘The Waiting Time’, ‘Holding the Zero’, ‘The Dealer and the Dead’, ‘’No Mortal Thing’, The Outsiders’,‘A Deniable Death’, ‘A Damn Serious Business’, ‘Archangel’, ‘The Collaborator’, ‘Killing Ground’, ’The Journeyman Tailor’, ‘Field of Blood’, 'The Foot Soldiers' & ‘Harry’s Game’.This is the first book I've read by Gerald Seymour, but I intend to remedy that as I enjoyed it so much. Stars ~ 'The Crocodile Hunter', 'In at the Kill', ‘A Song in the Morning', 'In Honour Bound’ & ‘The Untouchable’ He likes innocents caught up in worlds they don’t quite understand. Harry never really gets to grips with the multi-layered game being played in Northern Ireland, and as a result loses. In No Mortal Thing, a witness to an assault in Berlin finds himself drawn into the ’Ndrangheta’s net. Seymour is fascinated by how people respond when faced with great challenges. “I work on the principle that you get up in the morning and don’t know where you will be by the end of the day. I love that sort of story where something comes out of a clear blue sky.” It was a difficult story,” he says, “but I didn’t perceive it as that at the time. I just thought it was a bloody good subject to be writing about.” He says it was the most powerful story he ever covered as a journalist, and it is remarkable how Harry’s Game has stood the test of time. Forty years on, it feels as vivid and up-to-date as the film ’71, which was released last year.