Customer Reviews

The Republic of Night

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Pascual March is an unlikely hero, a Catalan who joined and later betrayed the PLO, he now lives in semi poverty in Barcelona hiding from his former allies. He is contacted by French intelligence with an offer he cannot refuse, come to Paris and identify a former terrorist and earn $100,000 or we will tell the PLO where you are. The result is complex and bloody tale involving the Russian secret service and the various factions of the Algerian civil war.

Different, well plotted and written Mr Martell has written two other novels featuring March, we can only hope he will get round to writing a few more.

From the very first pagragraphs, a heart-breaking prologue detailing the horrifying ugliness of Algeria's recent battles between government forces and Islamists, the reader is drawn into a tense story of moves and counter-moves as ex-terrorist Pascual tries to outwit Mirakl,a murky Russian-mafia-backed company whose nefarious involvement in the Algerian struggle has provoked the interest of French and Swiss secret police. Moving across Europe at a pace that will leave your daily life forgotten, Pascual's attempts at revealing the extent of Mirakl's corruption leads him to confront one of his first terrorist cohorts - who is now his deadliest enemy.
"Republic of Night" reads like a primer for terrorism funding and arming - one wonders what more Martell knows, and how he knows it. The subject matter's gravity makes it a sobering read, yet it is impossible to put down. The writing brings us immediately into Pascual's dark world, and we long for him to catch a break just as we long for the hero of "24" to get some rest: not happening.