The Ottoman Conspiracy, Thomas Ryan

If you're a fan of fast paced, fun thrillers and haven't clued into the Jeff Bradley Thrillers from New Zealand based author Thomas Ryan yet then you are in for a treat.

Action packed, set in interesting places with excellent plots and a great central character in Former Special Forces soldier Jeff Bradley - this third book in the series sees the place become primarily Turkey, the plot about the hunt for nemesis and master criminal, sidelined when an old mate calls for help. He's trapped on an explosives stuffed tourist bus, hijacked by terrorists and it's heading fast across Turkey, towards Syria, Iraq and Iran. When Bradley realises rescue is down to him, he calls in some help from US Special Agent Reason Johanson and they head off in a race against time, with a threat that turns out to have bigger stakes than just a mate's life, and some dangerous implications all round.

Needless to say a bit of James Bond / Jason Bourne / Die Hard type action with a lot of daring doings, some seriously impressive heroics, a bit of pathos and some good old fashioned mateship (not the icky / political kind), the "will come close to dying if necessary but would prefer not to" kind.

These novels do stand alone if you need to jump in somewhere / anywhere - but if you're a fan of this sort of action adventure over the top, one man to save the world type stuff (as is this reader) then launch yourself into this series wherever you jolly well can.