The Cardinals of Schengen by Michael Barton


Flailing arms disappeared as the flames from the burning gasoline shot even higher  and engulfed the few heads that bobbed on the surface. He could hear the screams of men as their flesh melted in the heat.

We start with a prologue, set in Germany towards the end of the second world war with an insignificant man, Gerhard Schneider, witnessing cargo being unloaded from a U-boat, overseen by Doenitz. The military convoy left with Doenitz before the submarine exploded. No survivors. About the same time a raid on Selsey, south England went horribly wrong. The German fast boat went down. Again, no survivors.
The story then begins in Kent, England and moves to the present day. What a dramatic opening with the planned assassination of Jack Hudson, Secretary of State-a high profile figure.
The Assassin is utterly wicked, a typically Machiavellian character who was addicted to killing and found it pleasurable. To him, it was much better than any snort of cocaine or a puff of weed.

The killing is gruesome-darts of snake venom which are highly toxic, causing rapid paralysis and finally suffocation. Named the pin prick of death. The assassin found it a PLEASURE to watch the Secretary of State die. How sick is that?

Brother Peter, nicknamed Hud was in the SAS in Iraq during 1991 to gather intelligence on the movement of the Soviet scud missile launches. Barton reminds us of those shocking images of war when a young officer is brutally killed. Hud was meant to be protecting him:

The bullet had entered from behind, just under the neck of his helmet and blown away his face as it exited. Blood and tissue splattered. Blood and brains mixed into one horrible mass, the boy unrecognisable.

Sixteen years later and Hud is still possessed by the horror of reality of that moment. His comforter, his security blanket that dulled the pain was the Southern Comfort and because his nerves were shattered, his marriage to Judy hit rock bottom and lead to a divorce but fortunately, an amicable one.

He is horrified to discover that his brother Jack has died from a suspected heart attack. When he sees Jack's corpse he notices a red mark on the right side of his neck and more importantly, fear in his eyes, the kind of fear that Peter had never seen before, as if Jack had been able to see his fate before it had happened.
Amy, Jack's widow gives Hud a locker key with VIV embossed in gold-some cryptic clue that Peter had to decipher and unravel the reasons why Jack met his untimely end. We meet Mark Chatfield nicknamed Chatters, a close friend to Peter. Both men served in the Falklands' war in 1982 before drifting apart.
Hud travels to Paris to unravel the mystery aided by Judy without realising the full extent of the danger he faces. There are some excellent James Bond type car chases and crashes leaving cars mangled to pieces and explosions. And there are plenty of brutal killings.

The Cardinals remain a mystery.....for a while.....but we do meet the triumvirate of terrorists planting bombs to annihilate Parliamentary buildings across Europe and working alongside the Schengen organisation preparing for the Fourth Reich, a European Empire controlled by the Nazis.

It's like the Nazis have never really been away. They've always been there, in the background, controlling Europe and waiting for the opportunity to pounce.

Their power has been built on murder, corruption and greed. It seems that Hud and Judy are lambs to the slaughter. If Hud becomes a condemned man, how is he going to survive? Will his army training give him the mental and physical strength to beat his adversary? To survive?
The final showdown reveals a shocking act of betrayal although this thriller does end on a positive note for those survivors. A possible act of reconciliation perhaps?

I like Hud's comment towards the end:
If I'm lucky there'll be a tomorrow. And if I'm not........well then I always had today.
The key question is does Hud survive? Is he one of the lucky ones?

Publishers: Word Play.   ISBN 13: 978-148-0122-765 and ISBN 10: 148-0122-769

COPYRIGHT 2013. Permission must be obtained from the author before any of this review is reproduced.

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