I came across Code Red in my, “You might also like,” section on Amazon. As thrillers go it had an interesting protagonist which drew me in. Bob Simpleton is a down-and-out bum on the street, living in a cardboard box trying his best to get drunk as often as possible. The author, Ian Loome, did a great job of making Bob disinterested in the whole affair the fact that he did not want to get involved and that he was not a have-a-go hero like Jack Reacher made Code Red more real for me. However, there are bound to be similarities between these two guys as Code Red after an interesting start follows the vigilante, now Jack Reacher, genre.
Bob is thrown into a world that he has tried to forget for years. The only reason he gets involved is the other two main characters who are involved only because they are pawns in a government coverup that Bob has to expose now the baddies have gotten him mad.
I enjoyed the earlier part of the story more than when Bob gets cleaned up. It had more of a realism to it than the later chapters. Bob has to clean up his act and get back into the mindset of a super spy come killer and at the same time try to stop the innocents from being butchered by the cutthroat government types that seem to exist all over the US these days.
If you want a great fast-paced thriller with a believable main character, with a good number of flaws to overcome, then Code Red is for you. Code Red kept me entertained from the outset, when Marcus Pell arrives home, a bit miffed that his mother forgot to pick him up from school and is promptly told to go and hide in the cellar. Confused and frightened out of his wits he witnesses his loving mother doing something he would never expect. Then he has to run for his life, and he is thrown into a world of subterfuge full of murderous trained thugs and professional killers. Ian Loome manages to intertwine he mundane with the exciting keeping Code Red jogging along at quite some pace.
Bob Singleton is a bum, living on the street, his only thoughts are how he will get his next hit of alcohol. He enjoys the oblivion of his addiction which allows him to forget his awful past. Bob’s only friend is a local nurse in an aid station set up by the community to help the bums on the street and patch them up when needed. But all that is about to end forever.
The odd trio ends up thrust together with a common goal; to survive against the odds. Code Red kept me entertained most of the time. However, in my opinion, Ian Loome has used a few too many cliches in Code Red, the second-hand car salesman was so cliched I stopped reading for a while! Why can’t the guy just be a normal low-level semi-crooked salesman who has a family and a kid and tries his best to do what he can for them? Also, Bob seems to get over his addictions a bit quickly. He has a few withdrawals, but they only seem to happen when Ian Loome, the author, remembers they should be there.
All of the negatives aside I felt that Code Red was a well-written book and moved away from the vigilante Jack Reacher formula which is getting a bit tired these days. I will read more of Ian Loome and look forward to reading the next in the series soon.
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