Review of “Deadly Game” by Sir Michael Caine

Score: 95+/100 (9.5+ out of 10)

A mysterious black box is discovered in the heart of London, Stepney, before abruptly going missing! Potentially containing nuclear-grade uranium-235—enough to produce an explosion “something like Hiroshima”—the box is feared to have fallen into the hands of the world's most dangerous people: the notorious Russian mob, a bloodthirsty cartel, a skinhead hate group, extremists, or even outright terrorists!

It's a race against the clock for Harry Taylor, a DCI (Detective Chief Inspector), and his special black ops unit of the British police force, SO22, to find the nuke and stop the culprits before they can produce a “new Nagasaki”--a catastrophe of biblical proportions in the heart of the United Kingdom!

Deadly Game by film legend Sir Michael Caine had us leaning in and at the edge of our seats!

If you love books by Tom Clancy, like his Rainbow Six series, you will absolutely love this book!

Aside from the intensity and thrilling nature of the plot, a plot in which death and disaster could await with every page turn, this is really a book that hinges on an immensely compelling and likable character: Harry Taylor.

Harry is an old-school, gruff, tough, yet surprisingly lovable veteran of both the police force and the war in Afghanistan. We are told that he was involved in numerous special ops rescue missions in places like Tora Bora, some of the most dangerous and challenging scenarios you could ask of a soldier.

He drives a big, heavy, gas-guzzling old fleet vehicle that has gone out of fashion due to fears over climate change (and general modernization). He expresses frustration over what he sees as the excessive regulation, auditing, micromanaging, and handcuffing of law enforcement. It's hard not to feel his pain and to root for him!

Anyone who has either served in law enforcement or who has sought justice against criminals only to be told that there's “only so much we can do” (either from law enforcement or the justice system) can empathize with the way that he feels.

It is with this in mind that the reader can really understand why his special unit, SO22, exists. We'd compare SO22 to being a mix between SWAT, Rainbow Six, the Navy Seals, MI6, and Blackwater. SO22 does the things that normal law enforcement can't normally do—taking on heavily-armed organized crime groups like the Kricks and assuming and counter-espionage and counter-terrorism duties that you'd expect of the CIA or FBI.

Our favorite description of the SO22 unit in the book compares the unit to a “wild-card elite team for special projects”--one that will do whatever it takes to put the bad guys either behind bars or six feet under, eliminating the threat to the public. SO22 was born out of frustrations with the limits that metropolitan police units had to deal with like restrictions and rules of engagement. It is implied that SO22 almost behaves like a private military company or PMC in the sense that, while working with the normal police force, they aren't sworn to the same rules and regulations as the police, thus have less liability. They are less susceptible to the political side of law enforcement which, the book argues near the end, is more about politicians and public officials getting into or staying in office by appeasing the public than actually stopping crime.

You can't help but cheer for SO22, both in concept and in practice. It's a “rebuke” to the rest of the police force while simultaneously a blessing to it. There's a certain rebelliousness to it. And, as we all know, each of us has a bit of a rebel inside—the side of us that doesn't like to be told “no” or that “you can't do that.”

It also sheds light on the reality of fighting evil—truly, truly vicious, vile, ruthless, and bloodthirsty people. You can't always play nice and talk things through with criminals and terrorists. Sometimes, you have to shoot first and ask questions later. Sometimes, you have to fight fire with fire. SO22 is the “fire” in this situation. This is the kind of unit you'd want to run into a school during a mass-shooting and turn the shooter into bloody confetti. This is the kind of unit you'd want to come to your rescue when you're held hostage by white supremacists or religious extremists who want to saw your head off for the internet and the world to see. This is the kind of unit you'd want to be in the mix in recovering a nuclear weapon that could result in the deaths of thousands, tens of thousands, or even millions of people!

At the head of the unit, supervising Harry, is Bill Robinson, the hard-nosed, grouchy, and often short-tempered director. This guy is no-nonsense, but he is also a realist. He is the kind of leader you don't want to admit you need in a time of crisis (because he can be a pain in the backside).

Also supporting Harry is Sergeant Iris Davis, one of the most gifted and skilled snipers in the world. At age 32, capable, competent, and gorgeous, Iris comes across as an incredible sidekick and female protagonist. She's arguably our favorite character and a shoe-in for our “Hottest Character” and “Best Supporting Character” awards.

Not only is she a great shot with a Heckler & Koch G3, and not only is she extremely tough and patient in taking her shots under adverse circumstances, but Iris can also rock a dress and heels (if needed), lean on hardened criminals until they talk (if needed), and even pick locks! What a dreamy gal!

She serves as a little bit of a love interest for Harry, but it never becomes creepy, weird, or forced. It's more so implied that he either really likes, admires, or at least appreciates her. One of the subtle hints we get is that “Iris could always make him laugh, and it always felt good.” Whenever characters can make each other smile and/or laugh, you know there's chemistry there.

What's also really nice to see is that Harry is protective of her and puts himself in danger to make sure that she's not hit in the middle of a gun battle, that she gets the medical attention she needs when she's hurt, that she's not the first person discovered when one of the bad guys is searching a room full of dead dudes, or hit by debris or irradiated during an explosion.

This shows us that Harry, despite being tough on the outside and rough around the edges, has a good, nurturing, and protective heart. He cares about people, especially Iris and his colleagues/comrades. This really elevates him as a character in our eyes.

Being on SO22 is a rough existence. We are told that everyone on the unit is either single/unmarried or becomes single/unmarried due to how the job is. It's a “home wrecker.” So, to see these SO22 comrades bond and look after each other is genuinely touching.

Now, this plot is a wild one! And there are a lot of potential suspects, many of whom are red-herrings or who overlap. There's Jon, the leader of a dangerous white supremacist group known to have been involved in bombing cultural/religious sites, kidnapping, extortion, torture, and murder. There's Xavier Ramirez, a nefarious Mexican cartel boss known to have forced at least one man to dig his own grave before burying him alive on camera, that on top of likely hundreds if not thousands of murders. There's Vladimir Voldrev, a notorious yet eerily calm and studious Russian crime boss who is called a “Ghost” or an “Obeah Man” (half-demon, half-man) by the people of Barbados he often does business with.

Then, there's Julian Smythe, who carries the facade of a wealthy, posh English gentleman seemingly obsessed with collecting art. Believe it or not, given all the descriptions we've given of these horrible, terrible suspects, Smythe comes across as the most annoying, frustrating, and—dare we say—punchable. There's just something about him that makes you want to reach into the page and strangle him for answers like you're Homer Simpson and Bart has just insulted you. Maybe it's just the fact that he seems and acts so higher-than-though or better-than-though.

There's believed to be some sort of conflict/blood-feud/rivalry going on between Smythe and Voldrev as the result of Smythe allegedly being responsible for the death of Voldrev's lover aboard a yacht (which answers earlier questions we had about why this book features a boat on its cover when most of the plot of this book takes place on land as opposed to at sea). Now, this comes to make a bit more sense near the end with a few other surprises, but it was a bit muddled and confusing on the way there.

Now, this book is a very interesting and intense read, but it has its bumps.

There's another character named Carol who is the scientist/nerd/Velma of SO22. She gets her own back story (about being a prodigy, graduating from college in two years or something) and is relevant in providing information and needing to be saved from time to time, but she seems superfluous a lot of the time, especially since a lot of what she says about atomic energy and its history is nothing new to anyone who took basic sciences in college. She also gets heavily overshadowed by Iris in the strong-capable-intelligent-and-beautiful-woman niche.

Similarly, the whole thing with the White Supremacists involving Carol or even the side-plot with the Kricks seemed a bit like fluff. We don't want to jump to conclusions, but we felt like that arc might've just been there because so many of the other villains were foreigners (Ramirez & Voldrev) and the sentiments about law enforcement were at least slightly conservative/right-leaning, so the narrative needed some white, right-wing extremists to balance things out. At least the fight with the Kricks helped to establish SO22 as a group of badasses.

There's also a scene in this book that we think was supposed to be extremely tragic and shocking, but that came across as unintentionally funny, if not outright hilarious. Here's a hint: it involves a submarine, a bicyclist, and a bazooka. That's some Looney Tunes stuff! Maybe the author wanted to lighten the mood? It's like cracking a joke while the widow is mourning at a funeral.

Ok, not gonna lie, we kinda loved laughing at that part. Sometimes, you need a good laugh.

There are also scenes in this book that seem drawn out and excessively chatty. There are times when we felt that there was just too much dialogue—too much of characters just sitting around and talking. Yes, some of these guys (like Voldrev) aren't people you'd normally have a conversation with, which you'd think would make these exchanges tense or uncomfortable, but they actually all seemed tame and mellow as if these feared criminals were just “normal people” going about their business. In fact, the interrogation with the low-level criminal who kept frequenting the crime scene was probably the best exchange in the book! Now, that was tense!

Yes, you might be able to find a hint or a clue here and there, but it really didn't need to be dragged out that long. It almost feels like the author just didn't want the book to end, adding layer on top of layer on top of layer, creating a Gordion knot that needed to unwind eventually.

Furthermore, you could also argue that this book has a pretty wonky, weird, over-the-top ending that we definitely didn't see coming. We'd almost argue that it's almost Hideo Kojima-like in nature. Then again, you could say the same about other such books by Tom Clancy, for example.

There is a degree of intrigue that comes from getting to know this mysterious villain in bits and pieces without quite knowing who they really are. For example, the book drops hints about some health problems the villain may be having. He listens to ASMR and takes melatonin to be able to sleep at night, for example. There are suggestions that he might be ill, even terminally so.

We wanted to comment on the audiobook version of Deadly Game. It is excellent, albeit somewhat flawed. There are times when it sounds like the narrator gaffed slightly (like when he says the word “Barbarian” and it sounds muddled or edited over). It also sounds like the narrator repeats the line “...to be squeamish further down the line” likely losing his placing. This is understandable. Narrating an audiobook, especially a sizable one like this is a lot of hard work and a ton of pressure! Anyone who has done it or tried to do it before will tell you that it's not easy or simple. You can't really expect perfection, so we're basically nitpicking, which is what we do. A part of us also kinda wished that Sir Michael Caine himself would have narrated this because no one delivers lines as emphatically as the legend himself. However, we understand why.

Now, with that out of the way, let's talk about why this audiobook is excellent. The narrator (Eddie Marsan) performs a range of accents and voices including the gruff accents used for Harry & Bill, the frazzled accent used by the low-level criminal in the interrogation room, the posh and pompous accent used by Julian Smythe, the Carribean accent used by Pepe, and the Russian accent used by Vladimir Voldrev.

It is truly impressive to hear the narrator go from one voice or accent to the next! This had to be immeasurably stressful, which is why we think it might've been a good thing that Caine left it to another person to narrate. We get it. It's hard enough to write a book, you don't need to lose hair over narrating it, especially this intricately.

Last but not least, we wanted to give props to some of our favorite lines and passages from this well-written book:

“Some puzzles aren't meant to be solved, they're just traps set by demons.”

Yes, we know this line was made possible because of Carol, who we earlier slagged. We digress.

“...he had never chased a beast with a bite like this one.”

“...half of police work is a matter of priorities. Psychedelic mushrooms versus mushroom clouds? In the end, there wasn’t really a choice.”

In conclusion, whether you read the paperback, eBook, or audiobook version, you are bound to enjoy this book!

Check it out on Amazon!