The Increment is further proof--if proof were needed--that Chris Ryan has carved out an unassailable position for himself as a purveyor of stripped-down, express-train-style narratives that provide in kinetic action what they might skimp on in characterisation. That's not to say that Ryan doesn't provide exactly as much characterisation as is required; notably in his tough and resourceful protagonist Matt Browning, who is an action hero for the 21st century. The Increment is the super-secret assassination unit of the SAS–-and it has one less member. Matt Browning was served his walking papers after having the temerity to challenge an order. But, needless to say, his association with Britain's premier fighting unit is not at an end: his ex-colleagues enlist him again to help a massive drugs company get rid of illicit copies of medicines manufactured by ruthless European gangsters. The long-term Chris Ryan reader will not be surprised to learn that (as in books such as The Kremlin Device and Zero Option), everything is soon going to hell in a handcart when (among other things) it transpires that an old army colleague of Matt's is on what looks like a psychotic killing spree--and he's not alone. Why are servicemen up and down the country intent on bloodletting? Before long, Matt is in the sights of nothing less than the Increment itself--and his chances of survival are small. Readers these days demand something more gritty than the high-life heroics that were Ian Fleming's stock-in-trade, and while some might lament the downward trajectory of the secret operative (in a social sense, if nothing else), Chris Ryan is still your man if you want first-rate, no-nonsense, thick-ear action. --Barry Forshaw