Ghosts is book four in the Barrett Mason series and finds Barrett living in France with his wife and adopted daughter. He is living in the French Riviera, working cash-in-hand for a sports bookie, based in a seedy bar. His job is to be his bodyguard, driver and general dogsbody. He has no official papers after escaping from the States and has to do what he can to keep his family with him. Barrett is an ex-Recon Force and US Intelligence officer, who got stitched up and imprisoned in Leavenworth, until his escape to Europe to join his family.
His bookie boss takes him to a meeting with some dodgy looking Russian thugs out in a remote area of countryside and makes some sort of deal with them. What Barrett doesn’t know is that he is part of the agreement. His boss wants him to take this job and tries hard to bribe him with a large sum of money to accompany him, but it sets of alarms for Barrett. He takes off on foot and meets up with wife and daughter at her school. They travel to Marseille, pretending to be on a road trip, to see some historic sites his daughter read about. Unfortunately, they have been followed and are in danger.
A group of killers have been sent to kill named people, all involved with a computer virus, called Ghost, which was to cause a nuclear meltdown and the possible death of millions. Two have been targeted so far and others are in their sights, including Barrett. He calls for help from his old US tested contact, Huff, and finds him close by and mentioned by the killers. It seems the case may be linked to Huff and Barrett in a more personal manner than they could know. Barrett is left with the choice of fighting back or leaving his family again. Neither of which he really wants to do.
As usual, there is a demented person behind the plan and they have set up quite a few plots to trip up Barrett and Huff as they try to find who is behind the plans and how to put a stop to them and the group of killers that this person is using to hunt them down. This is a tense story at times and the use of a computer virus and the original purpose it was going to be used for, is horrific to image. There is plenty of action in this book, but also a good family relationship being built with Barrett, his wife and adopted daughter. The old contacts and the trust between them and unflinching assistance given without question, harks your mind back to those in the Underground in Europe during WWII.
An old school spy saga and assignation scenario brought right up to date with the modern world and its technology. This was a great read, I really enjoyed it and couldn’t put it down and had to stay up till the early hours to finish it! If you like books with spies, killers for hire, special ops or intelligence work, or just someone having to fight against evil to protect those they love and many more. I look forward to reading more books by this author. I received an ARC copy of this book from the author and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.