Rogue Team International, a private army of some sort (I’m new to the series, okay?) teams up with Colonel Joe Ledger, who apparently caught the worst of a shocking conclusion to the previous book. Glad I did not read that one. RELENTLESS follows Rage and provides a major spoiler for anyone who hasn’t read that story. 

Continuing the series in dramatic fashion, Joe Ledger finds his family reduced to his white German Shepherd, and those of his comrades he knows well enough to consider family. We meet them on a sand and scrub island, in a re- enactment of The Dogs Of War. The mercenaries have more modern gadgets to check for heat signatures, electronics and bugs, but it’s pretty much the same principle. They take out the guards and attack the compound. Just when they seem to have the upper hand, they discover that the secret base is concealing a seriously dodgy laboratory. Umm, I’ll draw a veil over events.

This military thriller is tagged as horror among other categories, and while I don’t consider it a horror, many of the scenes seem deliberately written to provide someone bludgeoning someone with a rifle butt, swiping them with an axe or gutting them with a knife. Sorry if that puts you off your dinner. It meant I took several breaks while reading and never once looked forward eagerly to the return. The aforementioned dog – who dresses all in black for a night raid, and brings along a white dog? - can’t just be a fierce dog; it’s got titanium teeth and tears out… yeah, that sort of stuff.  For sure this is not a police K9.

So what is the plot? There are darknet sites for black market weapons sales, and someone sinister is creating powered armour suits to turn combat troops into super soldiers. Also up for sale are bioweapons, such as Rage which turns people berserk. This spread of equipment is demonstrated for us rather too often, especially given it’s used against poor, unarmed women workers in a shoe factory. I really can’t like the author’s choices as he builds us up to sympathise with people and then – yeah. This is all done to prove to us that there is a distinction between the good guys and the bad guys. By the halfway point you may not be so sure.

The Havoc Team including Joe and his dog Ghost have the obligatory high-stakes ending. There are women on the team, none of them very feminine. The one I like best is known as Violin, a sniper. Jonathan Maberry provides a seriously dark and disturbing tale in RELENTLESS.