On the Run: Book 1 in the Ryan Kaine series by Kerry J Donovan

4/5 Stars,  A Breathless action-packed thriller

 A great start to a new series.

The opening scene is singular, involving just our hero Ryan Kaine but is no less riveting for it, the tension building as you know something bad is about to go down. And it does (literally) when an act of betrayal throws Kaine into a fight not just to survive but to clear his name.  Only who will believe him? Set up for an act of terror so abhorrent he is on his own and ‘on the run’.

There is a lot to like about this action thriller. The story travels at a helter-skelter pace where Kaine is pursued and hunted at every step by the authorities and by a shady organisation that will stop at nothing to silence him. A former Royal Marine, member of the SBS and a top-grade sniper, Kaine is a veritable killing machine, but one with a moral code and a heart of gold. That is to say, he is a ‘good guy’ and the reader is left in no doubt that this is the case. If this was a Western, Kaine’s hat would be so white it would dazzle!

So, we like Kaine, he seems like a nice guy but dangerous if provoked and provoked he is. Lucky for him he is good at killing, with his hands, knife or gun it makes no difference. He is also good at taking a beating, which it turns out is also very handy.

I enjoyed this book, it is a good read but I preferred the opening half more than the closing half where the fight turned from one of escape and survival to hunt and destroy. I found the premise and story less compelling the further I read, which is not to say it wasn’t still highly entertaining. It’s just that I grew less worried for Kaine and I felt there was a certain artistic license taken where one minute our hero was trapped, dead-ended in a Bond’esc villain kind of way. ‘Vel Mr Bond, I vill strap you to zis table und this laser vill cut you in two, only I ‘ave this appointment with my chiropodist and can’t stay to vatch you escape, I mean die.’  

Okay, that is a little tongue-in-cheek from me, I am exaggerating, it wasn’t entirely like that but there were a few scenes where his escape was a little on the miraculous side. Also, he had wounds, which seemed pretty severe that would lay a normal person up or at least have them hobbling, which seemed to be glossed over in times of duress and which did not seem to impede his performance when fighting or firing or doing pretty much anything.

Also, Kaine was a decent guy. He had no flaws to speak of. He was intelligent, moral, tough as iron in mind and body, a deadshot with any weapon, a supreme fighter and an all-around nice guy. In other words, a massive cliché. Kaine has been compared to a British Jack Reacher by many, only Reacher had flaws and character traits that made him difficult and unsociable as well as possessing a forensic mind to detail. Reacher was interesting whilst Kaine has none of this flavour. I also found the end a little underwhelming, although I accept it had to be this way, especially if you are writing a series. What I mean by this is that our moral, upright hero was always going to hand himself in at the end to account for his part in what happened, only he jumped at the first opportunity not to do so on, what I thought, was pretty flimsy reasoning. This would have played better if there was some moral ambiguity about Kaine because then it would have made sense character-wise.

So, wrapping things up, a great fun book full of action especially if you like your heroes and villains in vanilla. I enjoyed the read and I liked Kaine and there is plenty of room to grow and add layers to his character as the series progresses. If you are intrigued by my review, then why not use Amazon’s ‘Look Inside’ feature and read the opening scene? You will know by then if the book hooks you in or not.