Superbly researched political thriller that rings true to the Australian environment. Great characters and nicely twisting plot, though had some issues with pacing and resolution.

Book blurb...

Revenge and the war on terror collide.

Sidney Allen is a Fed. Part of the Australian Federal Police's K block, a unit doing whatever it takes in order to stop terrorist attacks on home soil.

But when young Muslim men on the Terror Watchlist start turning up dead, Sid and his partner, Haifa, have to work out what's going on.

Sectarian war? Drugs? Retribution? For Sid, there's nothing unclear about a bullet to the head and a severed hand. Someone is sending a message.

Deciphering that message reveals a much wider threat and Sid and the agency have to decide just how far they'll go to prevent a deadly attack.

Time is running out ... for them and Australia.

From the brutal battlegrounds of Afghanistan, to the western Sydney suburbs and the halls of power in Canberra, THE LIST is a page-turning thriller where justice, revenge and the war on terror collide.

My thoughts…

This plot is quite confronting with regard to the possible future of terrorism in this country. Whilst I know it is fiction and these subjects should be discussed, I wonder if by putting these atrocities out there we might be inviting people to see these terror plots as real possibilities. It happens in both book and crime shows on TV, I know, but this was a little too real for me. The author has kind of done the job of planning an attack for them!

Both Sid and Haifa seem to carry their own share of baggage with them whilst they are investigating the killings. So much so, I found myself wondering why they were working for the AFP’s K block, as neither seem to be happy in their work!

I did get a little lost at stages in the story when I felt like the narrator was ‘teaching' me about terrorism and the Muslim cultural connections in Sydney. I did not like the way the Prime Minister is portrayed in such a negative light.

Overall, a lot of conflict that ultimately comes to a head and I guess the bad guys get everything they deserve, or do they? The author leaves this open.