A well done locked island murder mystery spy thriller when the past comes back with a deadly roar. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. It's a page turner.

this was a great start to a mystery series, it kept me invested with interesting characters and I enjoyed going through this book.

The island of Gruinard, off the coast of Scotland, is the setting for this novel. It’s an actual island which was poisoned with anthrax during the second world by a British Government experiment on germ warfare. Unfortunately anthrax spores are hardy and the island remained polluted for decades until a hugely expensive clean up operation. But what if the government failed in their endeavours and anthrax has returned? Such is the scenario painted by debut novelist D.L. Marshall.

A technician has died from a virulent strain of the disease. Attached to the new scientific mission to clean up the island, his death is a mystery and the intelligence services despatch freelance operative John Tyler (under the guise as the technician’s replacement) to investigate what has happened. It quickly transpires that the technician’s death might well be foul play and so John has a captive cast of suspects (for obvious reasons access to the island is strictly controlled).

What follows is one part locked room mystery, one part spy thriller. It’s an interesting set up and John Tyler is a well-drawn protagonist. The suspects are well-drawn too, and the novel is adeptly plotted. Did I guess who the killer/killers were? Well, no, I must confess that I didn't. But they were credible and their motives believable when the reveal came, and the narrative led to a satisfying denouement.

Tyler himself is clearly set to return in a sequel and it will be interesting to see his back story. He’s an action hero in the mould of many in the espionage/action genre, though Marshall tells us he’s never been in the military. That was a little confusing as we gather he knows his way around weapons, etc. But I’m sure Marshall will explain this as the series continues and I’m not somebody who needs everything to be spelt out on page one of book one.

This was a great read, and Marshall is a great talent. Bring on book two in the series.

A dark, twisty thriller that will keep you on edge from start to finish. Well-researched, pacy and a protagonist who has a good old Yorkshire sense of humour! Grab your protective gear because you’re about to be taken on a rollercoaster ride into the unknown...

The setting of this novel on “anthrax island” intrigued me due to the links to actual WW2 research into poisonous substances which could be used in warfare. Although now mostly decontaminated, this helped create a chilling atmosphere from the start. The lead character is sent to the island to fix the decontamination unit after it has jammed following the death of the on site technician... but as events unfold and bodies stack up, it turns out he is more than just a technician...
Spy thriller, murder, gritty action... this novel ticks all the boxes. The dramatic action sequences reminded me of Bourne films, violent and unstoppable. This would be a great film. The twists and turns kept me going to the end with so many unexpected curveballs.
I did find the action sequences a little long and overdone, knocking off a star from me. A gripping read.

Ok, so by ticking one of my 'big book boxes' and having a map at the front 😍 (others include witty chapter titles and recaps from previous books in a series when it's been a year and you've read a million books since the last one!), this got off to a great start!

With scientist back on the Island resarching the Anthrax spores, they call for assistance when a decontamination door has failed and the current technician is found dead. As soon as John Tyler sets foot on the Island he knows something is amiss and so begins the atmospheric, thrill-ride to work out whodunnit before there are more deaths.

This book felt a bit like a James Bond-style thriller set in a game of cluedo, except instead of being in a nice, fancy mansion, you are on an island covered in Anthrax, what's not to like!
Looking forward to seeing what Tyler gets up to next.

My thanks to NetGalley and publisher Canelo for the electronic copy.

I really enjoyed this book. Anthrax Island is a fiction based on facts; Gruinard Island off the coast of Scotland was a WW11 testing ground for the biological weapon Anthrax. There was an initial clean-up operation years later but now, in the setting for this plot, there is an international crew housed in purpose-built and Arctic-proof cabins, self-contained with their own decontamination chambers. They are there to further study the degradation of the Anthrax spores but unfortunately a new Anthrax strain as been detected. John Tyler has been sent on an uncomfortable journey to the island because the former technician Andy Kyle had died and the door to the main decontamination unit had failed, trapping scientists in a separate laboratory complex. When Tyler gets there he can see immediately it's a case of sabotage.
There's a lot more to Tyler than being a technician for the company who designed the decontamination chamber. He's resourceful and determined to find out exactly what is going on. When a seemingly impossible murder ensues he must decide who he can or cannot trust. He has his secrets and so do many of the staff and getting to the bottom of it all sends him into death-defying situations. Someone is definitely out to kill him because they have something worth killing for - but who? As the body-count mounts so does the tension with heart-stopping regularity.

This is well-written and extremely atmospheric, intriguing and action-packed. Can't wait to read more of John Tyler ("Deniable Asset").

I was hooked right away by the fantastic beginning to this book, and enjoyed it all the way through.

It's got all of the ingredients for a thrilling read - a mysterious island, secret biological weapons testing, a sneaky peek into the murky world of the security services, backstabbing and double-crossing, puzzling murders, and fast cars and gadgets.

Gruinard Island itself, the setting for the book, definitely shines as a main character, brought to life for us in a way most of us will never be able to experience in real life. There is also a fascinating insight into what went on during the war.

This book will particularly appeal to fans of high octane James Bond type thrillers.

Contaminated after bio weapons testing in the 2nd world war, Gruinard Island AKA Anthrax Island is now desolate, only used by a small team of scientists working to decontaminate the island.

When the engineer who looks after the decontamination units is found dead, John Tyler is sent by the company who look after the upkeep of the units to take over his job and repair a broken down unit.

Soon Tyler discovers all is not well in the island, and there is also much more to Tyler than meets the eye.

Tyler is a cracking new protagonist, he’s cool and calm, but he’s got issues to deal with.

I love the setting on the island, and the whole time I was reading the book I was picturing it on the big screen. It’s got a Hollywood blockbuster feel.

A Claustrophobic, Atmospheric locked in Murder mystery, this cat and mouse thriller is written and paced with breakneck speed that ramps right up to an enthralling and adrenaline pumping finale.

I’ll be very much looking forward to more from D.L Marshall and John Tyler.

A Loud, blistering chaotic and Massively entertaining debut.

🔥🔥🔥🔥

This is a book that manages to be both refreshingly modern and enjoyably retro. It takes the kind of hard edged, high concept thriller that flowed from the pen of the likes of Alistair MacLean in the 70s and brings it bang up to date. It’s gripping, smart, funny and worryingly believable.
The concept is simple, but the plot is packed with twists and turns, blending mystery, espionage and action. It starts with a technician, John Tyler, arriving on the desolate Gruinard island off the coast of Scotland. The island is infected with anthrax and home to a research base where an international team of scientists are researching biological weapons. Tyler’s job is to repair one of the HADU (Hazardous Agent Decontamination Unit) doors in the base, the previous technician having died mysteriously. The story is told from Tyler’s perspective and it quickly becomes obvious that he’s more than just a technician. As events unfold and the body count inevitably rises, Tyler faces danger from the unknown killer, the anthrax and the inhospitable environment of the island itself.
The remote, hazardous locale is a feature of many thrillers (and indeed whodunnits, which also get a nod here) because it works so well. ‘Anthrax Island’ plays with the concept brilliantly. One of the scientists is a killer, but going outside the confines of the base is fraught with danger, meaning that a lot of the book is a close-quarters guessing game as Tyler tries to work out who the murderer is. The mystery element is particularly strong, and really did keep me scratching my head right up until the satisfying conclusion.
The international cast proves entertaining too, with British, Russian, American and French interests in competition with each other in true spy novel fashion. To keep things up to date, Marshall throws in plenty of topical references which work really well. Brexit is blamed for cuts to the funding at the base and the British establishment want to keep the Americans happy as it might result in a supportive tweet from the President. There are also some fascinating chapters on the history of Britain’s involvement in biological warfare. Marshall manages to fit those in without getting in the way of the plot, which rattles along at a great pace until the action-packed climax.
All that helps make this an entertaining read, but the thing I liked most about it was the hero, Tyler. He manages to be wryly amusing without seeming like a dick and exhibits a convincing blend of confidence and confused desperation as he investigates. He’s portrayed as shabby and amoral, doing what he does for the money rather than for Queen and country, but he’s honest and likeable too. He’s also deeply, unashamedly, British, with multiple references to his Yorkshire roots and an enjoyable friction between him and the upper-class military commander of the base. He is, in many ways, the antithesis of the more famous British hero, James Bond, and that’s very much part of his appeal. Where Bond is effortlessly suave and self-assured, the desperate, dogged Tyler is probably the hero that Brexit Britain deserves.
As I said at the start, this is a thriller that manages to be both modern and enjoyably traditional. Its Britishness is particularly refreshing when you consider that our most successful thriller writer, Lee Child, writes such incredibly American books. The mix of tried and tested thriller tropes and modern sensibility makes for an engaging and satisfying novel that I couldn’t put down. On the basis of ‘Anthrax Island’ I think it’s fair to say that in Danny Marshall, Alistair MacLean has not an imitator, but a successor.

ANTHRAX, most people know a little about bacterium Bacillus anthracis but I will tell you a little more than maybe you want to know; so let me set the scene for Book 1 in the John Tyler series from author D L Marshall. But first a history lesson.
Scientists believe Anthrax has been around since the days of the Egyptians, that's 700BC, it lives in soil as a naturally occurring organism, its thankfully not contagious and therefore cannot be passed between each other BUT the spores of Anthrax can live in a dormant form for up to 90 years in ordinary soil. Humans and animals can be infected with Anthrax in Four different ways – via your skin, breathing it in (mortality of 50 to 80%, even with treatment), digesting it and by injection.
So anthrax has been known about for a very long time but not until the 20th C has it been fully researched and understood, in the 1WW it was used as a weapon, during the 1930’s Japan experimented using it as a weapon against its enemies, and during the 2ww both the US and UK began to develop biochemical weapons, anthrax being just one of a whole host of naturally occurring organisms or naturally made chemicals such as Ricin; I am sure you the reader is aware of our UK Portman Down facility specifically set up to monitor and develop
In 1979 a small city in the USSR had an outbreak amongst the human population where 96 people were infected and 64 of them died (getting scary now). In 2001 in the US powdered anthrax spores were put into letters) bio terrorism, and mailed through the postal service, 22 people got anthrax and 5 died.
And in Zambia during 2011, 500 local inhabitants eat Hippos who had died from inhaling Anthrax whilst snuffling about in soil. Hippo steaks for all, causing 500 men women and children to become ill with 5 dying.

If those of you who like to know a bit more about anthrax try the US government internet site
www.cdc.gov/anthrax/asics/anthrax-his...

Now with the scene set our troubled government (deniable asset) mercenary John Tyler arrives on Anthrax Island (known as Gruinard Island) or to Scottish locals Death Island, infected by Anthrax during 1942 to see the effects on sheep and wildlife of the islands – guess what it became acutely contaminated killing all the Sheep and rabbits (as an aside they called the operation ‘vegetarian)!!
John our ‘hero’ masquerade as a technicians to fix the sabotaged living units holding a small number of clean up crews, what starts as a simple replacement of a fuse turns into a race against time to find the killer hidden amongst a small number of scientists and technicians on the island.
This thriller captures both the inhospitable, claustrophobic atmosphere of the islands with rolling mist devoid of both wildlife apart from birds.
Characters dressed in flimsy, yellow, red and green hazmat type plastic suits with marigold gloves squelch, fall, fret and ultimately some get killed by our hidden entrepreneur criminologist out to make a couple of million dollars from a new strain of Anthrax. Our John becomes the mad max post apocalyptic hero who has to endure being cooked (yes not as a hamburger though more as crispy bacon), poisoned, bludgeoned, shot and nearly drowned.
The story is well researched with many factual events sprinkled throughout the book giving a solid base to the story, very claustrophobic feeling as you get to put on the hazmat suit, marigold gloves stuck on with second grade sticky tape and experience the constant threat of possible Anthrax infection. A cross between ‘who done it’ a Jonathan Creek mystery with a smidgen of the ‘guess who’ game.
Its a normal length book but it sure as hell felt intense and long (3 days to read) just because of the intensity of being set on an island with very little so see or enjoy, I spent a good 3 hrs in one session reading it and felt intensely tense and had to lay it down for the day. Will book 2 be like this one with a bio terror theme? We will have to wait and see. Over to you Mr Marshall an intense start to the series, remind me to not go digging in the garden this weekend.