Book Review: Black Spawn by Jamie Hutchison

Action mystery adventure. A young couple become the first known hosts of a deadly parasite. No medical treatment can help, it controls every major organ of the human body. Death only comes when the parasite decides.

In London terrorists attempt the most daring attack against the British Isles. Marine biologist Mark Yates gets drawn into both deadly affairs.

My Review: 
Red Swarm was one of my favourite creature feature books of the last two years. I enjoyed the joint UK and US investigation, The British Navy being the centre of the story and the amount of people that the creatures killed. I went into this book expecting something similar especially with the title. I thought it was going to be a deadly fungus spreading terror through the population and that being connected to the terrorist attacks. I better warn everyone that in fact these are two different plots that the MC gets involved in so that readers don't go into it expecting something that they don't get!

Mark is still brooding about circumstances stopping his romance with Lisa in its tracks, which we first see in Red Swarm, when he is summoned by Admiral Lane who needs his help with a worrying new case where a young couple on a date contracted an infection from a parasite that is killing them in a gruesome manner. It is a marine slug creature that uses their bodies to reproduce its deadly offspring and is fatally contagious. Mark and his friends get involved in the investigation to find and destroy the offspring and trace the contacts that the couple had before it spreads any further. If the parasite is able to spread, there will be panic and mass death to deal with, so it is a race against time to isolate and destroy it.

At the same time Mark becomes suspicious about a group of Middle Eastern men in a neighbouring flat who are behaving strangely. After a disturbing run-in with the men, Mark finds his flat has been searched and someone tried to access his computer. The Admiral is alarmed and sends intelligence agents to investigate the break in. Mark is then interrogated by Kamar, the woman who owns the flat, who is now suspected of being part of a terrorist cell working in the UK, which her father has been accused of leading. Her brother is also a wanted terrorist in Europe. Mark is asked to keep in touch with her and help get information about her plans and movements as the terrorists plot a series of attacks in London that need to be stopped.

It was fun to check in with our marine biologist hero Mark again. He is a good solid character that is easy to like and root for. He gets the chance to link up with some old friends from the previous case-Kate, Colin and Becky, all of whom I really liked. Kate becomes heavily involved in the search for the deadly parasite and finds herself in the middle of a crisis on a mission to destroy them which goes badly wrong. With her language skills, she is also able to determine a possible location for the terrorist attack-HMS Coventry. 

We are also introduced to the wonderful female intelligence agent Newton who is just so smart and totally kickass! She is assisting Mark and the Admiral on the investigations and I really enjoyed the addition of her character to the plot. Newton is far from pleased at also having to work with French intelligence agent Da Rocha, and their clashes are entertaining. The women dislike each after after a run-in they had in the past which they have to resolve if they can work as a team. It was good to see such strong female characters all taking part in saving the country.

The two plots were both really interesting. As I said, I was expecting them to merge and that the terrorists were using the parasite but that is not how things developed. Both plots are only connected by the people who are working on both cases. I did enjoy the way that both plots evolved with Mark and Kate involved in both of them. I also loved the way Mark's relationship with Lisa had stuttered and how Mark was trying to work through it and find a way for them to get back together. I was certainly not expecting what happened with them in this book! Both plots are resolved nicely with some good tense and action scenes. I'm also intrigued with the ending and how future stories could evolve from it.

I would certainly continue to read more books in this series.

Read September 2018.
4 stars.