Free Agent by Jeremy Duns

Get ready for a new Dark Age.

Jeremy Duns’ Free Agent is a refreshing and exciting new novel where nothing is quite what it seems. Following a high level KGB defection and the suggestion of a double agent, MI6 man Paul Dark finds himself doubting everything he ever knew and must not as in most cases prove his innocence, but hide his guilt…

Paul Dark is our ‘hero’, billed as a mixture of Jason Bourne and James Bond. We should really dislike Dark – he’s cold-blooded, arrogant and a killer – but you find yourself drawn to him and even empathising with him. You want him to succeed, even though he’s ultimately one of the bad guys. His actions in the opening chapter are genuinely shocking, but then you want him to get away with it.

Interestingly, he is also our narrator. It does mean that the novel is confined to only the one viewpoint and in a book where our hero’s allegiances are being tested from the very beginning, it does leave you in an interesting relationship with the protagonist. I felt at times doubting what I was being told by Dark and questioning his authority, but then enjoying it all the more as you feel that you are there with Dark, trying to work out what is going on. Is he double-crossing us or is he being used as well?