Author: Bear Grylls
Publisher: Orion
Publication Date: 2nd June 2016
Pages: 416
Source: Library
Rating: 5/5
Purchase: Amazon
A prehistoric corpse entombed within an Arctic glacier, crying tears of blood.
A jungle island overrun by rabid primates - escapees from a research laboratory's Hot Zone.
A massive seaplane hidden beneath a mountain, packed with a Nazi cargo of mind-blowing evil.
A penniless orphan kidnapped from an African slum, holding the key to the world's survival.
Four terrifying journeys. One impossible path. Only one man to attempt it.
Will Jaeger. The Hunter.
Despite a couple of dud reads, I have been lucky enough to read some absolutely fantastic books recently and one of my favourites has been Burning Angels by Bear Grylls. I read and enjoyed Ghost Flight last year but Burning Angels was just in another league to that and is probably one of the best thrillers that I have ever read simply because of it's phenomenal storyline and the amount of story packed into the pages. I just did not want it to end and the only disappointment I felt reading this book was when it did end. I am already looking forward to the third Will Jaeger novel.
Will Jaeger is back, and so too are some of the most memorable characters from Ghost Flight such as Irina Narov who I love. I am not even going to attempt to summarise the storyline because when I read the blurb I wondered just how all of what it reveals could possibly be connected, but connected it is and in the most brilliant of ways. Essentially somebody is trying to destroy humanity, all apart from one small section of it, and it is down to Will Jaeger and his team to put a stop to the worst act of evil the world has ever seen since Adolf Hitler. Bear has based the story on recently discovered material from his grandfather's military days and, as my own grandad recently passed away, I almost felt like this helped me to connect with the author and the story on an emotional level and felt that the fact that this wasn't a completely fictional tale just gave it the kind of depth that is usually missing in this genre which is littered with throwaway reads.
Burning Angels is an action packed read. It sounds like such a cliched thing to say but it really is. So much happens and the reader is barely given time to pause for breath. The reader follows Jaeger and his team across the world in their attempts to stop this act of evil from being carried out. Those who have read Ghost Flight will know that Jaeger is haunted by the fact his wife and child were kidnapped, and he has been taunted in the past by those who kidnapped them. Unsure of whether they are even alive, their disappearance plays a huge role in what unfolds in this story and as Jaeger begins to grow close to a certain female character in this story, I was left wondering just what would happen as more secrets started to be unfolded. Jaeger and Irina Narov spend some time alone in this story as their quest leads to the two of them having to infiltrate the villain of the story's lair. It was some of these scenes that were my favourites in the story because these two characters are endlessly fascinating to read about and there are some thrilling twists and turns revealed along the way, not least about the history of these two characters. I want to say too much but already I think I've said enough.
Will Jaeger is the perfect character to feature in a thriller such as this and as I said in the past I picture him as a cross between Ross Kemp and Bear Grylls himself. The adventure element, as you would expect, is brilliantly done and Jaeger and his team survive and look after themselves (and get one over on their enemies) in some very inventive ways and I loved the detail that Bear went into about some of these survival skills. Jaeger is an easy character to like, and whilst part of me would normally roll my eyes at a potential romance happening whilst someone's wife and child is missing, it is done here in a very natural and believable way. As the pages started dwindling the pace is turned up to full throttle, and as it was already pretty fast paced by that point my heart was soon beating extremely fast. The closing pages of this story were just brilliant, everything wasn't tied up in a predictably neat fashion, instead we are given some kind of a resolution to the story but at the same time the scene has been well and truly set for the next Will Jaeger novel and I already cannot wait to read it. This is one of the best adventure thriller series out there at the minute and I highly recommend it to those who are yet to discover it.
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