Harry Clark was a soldier stationed in Cyprus where he met and married Greek Cypriot, Xanthi. Within weeks of the birth of their daughter he left to join the Special Forces. His precarious life was cut short when he was shot by Malik, an Iraqi insurgent and left for dead. He survived momentarily only to be the victim of a grenade attack from “The Shadow.”
It was three years before Harry could walk and his body functioned unaided. Twenty years after getting married Harry finally returned to Cyprus to fulfil his dream of opening his own restaurant. This was quickly shattered when he was unwittingly dragged into the seedy world of people trafficking and the reappearance of Malik.
Will he survive this time?
Review:
Cowboys and Angels is a thrilling, poignant read that hooked me from the get-go; It is a book with numerous themes and all of these themes work so perfectly together. This book is first and foremost a thriller/mystery book but I believe it can be described as so much more than this as it has themes of marriage, ambition and even revenge, well, to an extent! It makes for a brilliant book and I would implore all of you lovely readers to read it!
This incredible novel follows the protagonist, Harry Clark. Clark was a soldier a long time ago and he was stationed in beautiful, sunny Cyprus and whilst there he met the love of his life, Xanthi, and soon they married and had a beautiful daughter. However, Military life is complicated and so he gets deployed just when his baby is a few weeks old. I have to say, this really hit home for me because this happened to me with my husband when he was deployed with one of our children, it is very difficult and this book brought back those memories for me but if anything, it inspired me to be more strong and that I am strong! Anyway, my point is that I adored how the author of this novel, Graham Sclater included this as he shows what it is like to be a married couple when one of the partners is in the Military.
When Clark is deployed tragedy ensues and he is shot by an Iraq insurgent called Malik, Malik is frankly a nasty piece of work and I despised him, he leaves Clark left for dead and it devastated me because I knew that he had a young, adorable baby at home as well as a loving wife. At this point in the novel we skip ahead 20 years or so and Clark is back, living in Cyprus. He has dreamed of opening his own restaurant for a while now and so he decides to take that leap and do it, however when he does he finds that there is a seedy underbelly beneath the streets of Cyprus and people trafficking is rife and to make matters worse, the terrible Malik makes a return! This is the premise of this brilliant, genius novel.
The story of Cowboys and Angels floored me, I adored the Military aspect as well as the love aspect and these two themes, combined with the novels genius, thrilling plot make it a clever read that is perfect for anybody who adores thrillers as well as Military stories. I was really impressed how the author Sclater managed to include so much depth into his novel, no stone was left unturned, he informed the reader when the reader needs to know a question and he knew how to perfectly execute his story. The pacing of the novel along was genius! Sclater really is a talented writer and this book of his is incredibly perfect.
Graham Sclater, the author of Cowboys and Angels can only be described as a brilliant wordsmith, I adored his writing which felt as if it was spiked with adrenaline and I adored the multi-layers of this story. This thriller/mystery was packed full of great and informative depth which is rare for this genre in my opinion. His characters, especially the protagonist of the novel, Harry Clark, were simply electric. His narrative jumped off the page and made me want to read until I could no more. He was such a great protagonist that he compelled me to read and propelled the novel forward; I really am in admiration of him and his hardships and being a Marine wife meant that I felt for him and his family so thank you Sclater for writing such an accurate portrayal!
To summarise my thoughts on this engaging novel that is full of twists and turns galore, I would say if you are looking for a quick read that will compel you to read then this brilliant and genius thriller is for you! This incredible book gets Five Stars from me! – Review by Anonymous
