Tony Groom scored with his first book Diver, the real-life story of his career as a Royal Navy mine clearance diver. He has walked the walk, we know he’s a good writer, and now he has channelled his knowledge of maritime activities and the military into his first novel, In2Deep.
First to say is that I enjoyed the book – it’s fast-paced and seems well-grounded. It concerns ex-clearance diver Nick Carter, who is minding his own business on his boat in the Med when he gets tangled up with a bunch of Islamic terrorists, prepared to compromise the mother of all plots for a little low-grade piracy.
Despite the promise of the first few pages, there is in fact little diving in the book, apart from the later exploits of military divers on a mini-sub. This is a maritime thriller, but not particularly an underwater one.
I do have a couple of issues with the novel’s structure. A central section about the adventures of MI6 man Miles in Morocco makes good reading, but seems like a detour from the thrust of the book, and hardly moves the plot along. Lose it and you wouldn’t know it. Mind you, the book is dedicated “to Miles”, so perhaps there’s more here than meets the eye.
Secondly, from the moment the intelligence services and the massed might of the military get involved, there is a certain inevitability about the outcome. It’s less about whether the plot can be foiled than the means.
So In2Deep shifts from being about a man against the world into a military procedural and, because the writer is so bound up with all the hardware and systems described, at times the action is a tad hard to follow.
I’m sure in his next thriller Tony Groom will maintain the suspense throughout. But don’t mind my carping, this is still a cracking read.
Steve Weinman
La Puce Publications
ISBN: 9780956262691
Softback, 378pp, £9.99
