Book 70 - Timebomb

Timebomb by James Barrington is the 4th novel to feature the maverick British agent Paul Richter.  The action takes place in several locations including Geneva, Stuttgart, London and various locations in Kent, including the Isle of Sheppey. 

Richter is sent to Geneva to participate in a routine arrest but this turns into a bloodbath and 4 terrorists and 4 policeman are killed.  Then a tramp is murdered on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent and a surveillance operation in Stuttgart fails when those being watched are tipped off that the police are watching them.  These events all turn out to be connected and Richter finds himself in a race against time to stop a group of terrorists from blowing up a speedboat packed with explosives over the wreck of a ship lying in shallow water off the Isle of Sheppey.  The ship's holds contain vast quantities of explosives, which if set off would cause an enormous explosion, which would send a tsunami up the River Thames to devastate the London and across the Thames Estuary to swamp low lying areas of the South Essex coast.

There are lots of twists and turns in this fast paced thriller, not all of which I followed but it was a compulsive read.  Characterisation and a sense of place are sacrificed for the action.

The ship concerned is real: the SS Richard Montgomery ran aground on a sandbank and sank off Sheerness in 1944 with an enormous quantity of explosives in her holds.  The ship is still there and much of her deadly cargo is still on board.

Islands covered: Isle of Sheppey

Sheerness

 

Beach at Leysdown-on-Sea, Isle of Sheppey