“Dark Asset” eBook was published in 2017 and was written by Adrian Magson (https://www.adrianmagson.com). Mr. Magson has published 25 novels. This is the fourth in his “Mark Portman Thriller” series.

I categorize this novel as ‘R’ because it contains scenes of Violence and Mature Language. The story is set in today’s Middle East. The primary character is deep cover specialist Marc Portman.

Portman is contracted by French Intelligence to protect a Frenchman who is in deep cover within Mogadishu. All Portman has to do is protect the frenchman’s back while he recovers a hard drive with sensitive information and then turns it over to his superior. Things do not go as planned.

The information on the hard drive, Portman finds, would implicate officials in the US and France for trying to negotiate an oil deal with terrorists. Now the terrorists and intelligence agents from both countries are out to get the drive and take care of loose ends.

When he finds a mutilated body instead of his contact, Portman struggles to stay alive and get out of Mogadishu. But he has to go back to see if he can recover the missing drive, while avoiding all of those who are out to get him. 

I enjoyed the 7+ hours I spent reading this Fiction Thriller. I have read one of the other books in this series and I like the character developed for Marc Portman. The plot was good and the novel read well as a stand-alone book. The cover art is OK. I give this novel a 4 out of 5.

Further book reviews I have written can be accessed at https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/.

My book reviews are also published on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/31181778-john-purvis).

Severn House Publishers and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Dark Asset. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

Dark Asset is the fourth novel in a series featuring main character Marc Portman. As a close protection specialist, his job is to evaluate risk in hostile situations and run security measures to keep the principal safe. Asked by French intelligence to provide help to one of their operatives, Portman finds him dead with a hard drive hidden on his person. Having to make his way away from the meeting site with minimal detection is difficult at best, seeing that there is an assault on the building. Nothing is ever as easy as it seems and Portman becomes embroiled in a dangerous game involving a valuable commodity. Espionage pays ... if you can stay alive long enough.

Author Adrian Magson has once again skillfully weaved a spy thriller worthy of adaptation to the silver screen. Marc Portman is everything I like in a main character for a novel in this genre: he is highly intelligent, street smart, resourceful, and knows how to extricate himself from many dangerous situations. Joining him on his journeys, from afar, are familiar characters from previous books and I like the interactions that the Watchman has with them. Dark Asset is fast paced with well developed characters and a great story. Readers who are new to the Mark Portman series should not turn away, as it is not essential to have read the previous novels. Of all of author Adrian Magson's characters, Marc Portman is my favorite, so I eagerly anticipate the possible dangers that he may face in the future.

My review for this title has been posted on the Fresh Fiction website. It can be read in its entirety at:
http://freshfiction.com/review.php?id=62771
I would like to thank Severn House and NetGalley for the opportunity to view this ARC.

My next review is as follows:-

"Dark Asset:A Marc Portman Espionage Thriller", written by Adrian Magson and published in hard-cover on 30 Jan. 2017 by Severn House Publishers Ltd. 256 pages. ISBN-13: 978-0727886996

This author never ceases to amaze me with the high quality of his writing even though he is currently researching and preparing two main series of books. There is this series with Marc Portman and also the 'Cruxys Solutions Investigations' series the last one named "The Bid" which was published in paperback on 1st February 2017.

Marc Portman's latest assignment is providing back-up for a French intelligence agent sent to recover a hard drive from one of the most dangerous cities on the planet: Mogadishu in Somalia. What he hasn't been told is that the device records secret negotiations between two leading western nations and a hard-line terrorist organisation responsible for killing thousands of innocent people.

When the decision is taken to abandon the talks, anybody in the know immediately becomes a target to be silenced.

And Portman finds himself at the top of the list...

This book was non stop action and suspense. Portman has to go into the centre of this highly dangerous city to meet a French agent who is supposed to have a hard drive with highly dangerous data on it. Unfortunately, the rendezvous building he goes to is under siege by very unfriendly people and Portman finds the agent but he has been shot and killed.....

It is a book that once started it is almost impossible to put down and I was up until quite late at night before I finally reached the very gripping conclusion.

The main attraction I have in reading this authors work is that the stories are completely unpredictable, in the middle of this one I remember thinking what is going to happen next and having no idea at all except that what ever it is will be highly imaginative and take the story in a fresh direction entirely.

This very exciting and sensationally well plotted creation rushes on to its final dramatic conclusion. I have had the privilege of reading for review purposes the Cruxys Solutions stories, "THE Bid" & "The Locker" and the author's previous MI5/CIA bodyguard stories "CLOSE QUARTERS"(2015) and also THE WATCHMAN(2014), his NO KISS FOR THE DEVIL(2008) in his Riley Gavin series and two of his D.I. Lucas Rocco stories set in provincial France during the early 1960s: DEATH ON THE MARAIS(2010) and DEATH ON THE RIVE NORD(2011). I understand he has also written another fifteen crime and spy thrillers, four short story collections, and a Young Adult Ghost novel!

I hope to read yet more of this very gifted authors stories, whether it is in this new series or any of the previous ones or completely in a new direction soon. If you want to start reading an exciting book that is exceedingly difficult to put down once started then buy this one. Very strongly recommended.

Best wishes,

Terry
(To be published on the eurocrime.co.uk blog in due course)

Good book, very enjoyable. Well written and engaging.

Overall a well written and engrossing novel, with some hidden twists and turns. If anything, the main protagonist was too ‘squeaky clean’ for the type of operator he was supposed to be.