Headhunter

by Nick Oldham

Overview

Accused of murder, former marine and disgraced ex-cop Steve Flynn is on the run – and on the hunt …

Wanted for murder, Steve Flynn finds himself on the run, alone and without resources, driven only by a burning desire to avenge himself on the men who murdered his girlfriend. Ex-cop Flynn is a force to be reckoned with - but he’s up against a powerful and ruthless enemy in Viktor Bashkim, head of a violent mafia gang with a disturbingly long reach. Flynn knows that Viktor will not stop until he is dead – so Flynn must reach Bashkim first.

Following a trail across the Mediterranean, Flynn embarks on a cat-and-mouse game that can only end in sudden, violent death. But is he being led into a lethal trap …?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780727887290
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	11/01/2017
Series:	A Steve Flynn Thriller , #3
Edition description:	First World Publication
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.55(w) x 8.74(h) x (d)

About the Author

Nick Oldham is a retired police inspector who served in the force from the age of nineteen. He is the author of the long-running Henry Christie series and two previous Steve Flynn thrillers.

Read an Excerpt

Steve Flynn is on the run … and on the hunt…

The man had to die and Steve Flynn had to be his killer.
  Flynn broke the man’s neck with ease, and although he knew he had instantly killed him, just for good measure and to avoid any error, he kept his forearm jammed tight across the man’s neck to crush the windpipe and shut off all blood flow to the brain.
  Almost intimately, nose-to-nose with the man, Flynn watched his eyes first glaze over and turn milky in death and then, as Flynn continued to squeeze and keep up the pressure, he saw them almost bulge out of their sockets and then haemorrhage red as what blood remained in his head was forced into the orbs.
  Only when he was completely certain the man was dead did Flynn release his neck-hold and allow his head to flop. Then he let the lifeless body slither out of his grip and thump down hard on to the metal floor pan of the police van. Flynn did not gently lower him down and the back of his head smacked against the metal edge of the bench seat while his body twisted unnaturally on to the floor.
  To have eased him down, to have given him that final piece of dignity, would have been too much like an act of kindness or contrition on Flynn’s part. It was much more than this man, whose name was Brian Tasker, deserved and certainly more than he had afforded any of his victims.
  Flynn’s usually craggily handsome face was twisted, sweaty and ugly with pain and effort. The sinews in his neck were taut like strands of plaited steel cable.
  He dragged the back of his hand across his mouth, wiping away the spittle, then glanced down at his outer right thigh and his bloodstained jeans. A wave of nausea rolled up from his lower gut and almost engulfed him, but he fought it to remain focused and concentrating.
  The leg had been very basically dressed by a paramedic earlier, and Flynn knew that, in an ideal world, what he now needed was hospital treatment for the gunshot wound.
  But Flynn was operating in a far-from-ideal world and a hospital admission would have to wait its turn.
  Bracing himself to ignore the agony from his leg and also the throbbing of a burst eardrum, he slid along the bench seat to the back door of the van and pushed it open.
  He knew his time was limited.

Editorial Reviews

09/18/2017
British author Oldham’s vigorous, violent third Steve Flynn thriller (after 2016’s Ambush) finds the former Marine and ex-cop turned vigilante in the back of an unattended police van in Blackpool. There Flynn delivers his own brand of rough justice to Brian Tasker, who tortured and intended to kill him, by breaking Tasker’s neck. Flynn, who’s got a gunshot wound in his thigh, steals the van and stops at a pharmacy, where he coerces a clerk into giving him a strong painkiller. Just as he’s leaving, a policewoman arrives and tases him. Newcomers thrust into the mayhem will wonder what’s going on, but series fans will know that Flynn’s actions relate to his conflict with an Armenian crime family, whose members are trying to kill him and who beheaded his girlfriend in his last outing. After escaping from police custody, Flynn becomes involved in various beatings, gunfights, knifings, car crashes, and bombings, not to mention committing arson and breaking and entering. Readers may wonder how Flynn avoids doing serious jail time. Anyone interested enough can race through this book to find out. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"A knuckle-biting read"

Booklist

"a knuckle biting read"

Booklist