The Alpha Particle by TJ Hawkins

Tom Rivers is your basic British architect until he has a serious accident. When he awakens, he finds his life wasn’t as expected. His skills stretch well beyond that of an architect. Turns out his younger days were spent is training for the highest level of security and espionage. Then his handlers ‘put him to sleep’ to hide his skills only to be activated (awakened) in the event of a potentially catastrophic emergency. Oh, and his wife Luna is a similarly trained sleeper agent.

Russia has a new class of long-range missile capable of hitting targets without warning. If that’s not bad enough, a middle east terrorist, Baqri, has managed to obtain a rare element and gets it weaponized. The Brits and the US get word that Baqri is working to put this rare element on one of those Russian missiles to fire on the US (seems Baqri’s issues with the US aren’t political or ideological. In an earlier life, Tom killed Baqri’s brother. His motivation in pure revenge against both Tom, his wife, and the US in general). Baqri is backed by a mysterious cabal of disaffected billionaires who think they know what’s best for the world – call them The Collective (blood kin to SMERSH of SPECTRE, et al.?).

To get the attention of the US leadership, Baqri fires a missile on a mid-size city in Ohio killing thousands. This mobilizes the US medical community to determine and treat the killing element. The security community is out in force to find the number of missiles Baqri has access to and when/where he might strike again. The sharp end of the US’s spear is Tom and wife Luna.

This is an engaging if (in my opinion) outlandish scheme involving super spies, obsessed lunatic middle easterner, and the author’s version of the Bilderberg Group. While the writing style is polished, the story just seemed to me to be too much, too unbelievable, and entirely unrealistic. One of the things that make thrillers so interesting is the possibility that the story might happen. I had a hard time believing that The Collective exists, that husband/wife sleeper agents are out there unaware of their past only to be awakened to save the world, that such weapons (missiles and biochemical) can be adapted for mass murder and no one is aware.

If you like the impossible, check this out. I’ll just sit idly by in blissful ignorance.

ECD