By Joshua Hood

Head of Zeus, out now

Former Treadstone agent Adam Hayes must rediscover his old skills when a specialist team comes after him…

It’s 40 years since Robert Ludlum introduced Jason Bourne aka David Webb to the world in his novel The Bourne Identity. He wrote two further novels before the baton was picked up by Eric von Lustbader for another dozen or so – with more to come later this year. A TV miniseries with Richard Chamberlain was followed by five movies centred around Matt Damon’s Bourne (the fourth only peripherally), and a TV series in that universe has been a hit. What better time to expand the novels?

You don’t need to read the author biography to realise that Joshua Hood knows his stuff. This book is at its best in its action sequences, with Tom Clancy levels of appreciation of the hardware involved, and an ability to get inside the head of the person under fire. And there are plenty of such sequences scattered throughout, as Adam Hayes travels the world to find out why someone is trying to kill him – and what his friend died for.

There’s an oblique reference to Bourne – with a rather meta comment about everyone knowing of the agent whose memory went – but this takes Treadstone to a new place, suggesting that its day might be over… and yet human intelligence clearly still has a role to play. This is the Treadstone of the original Bourne trilogy, as far as I can tell, rather than any expansion in other media, or the sequels, and can certainly be read as a standalone (the key elements of the Treadstone program are laid out – and in so doing, sound rather more science fiction than you might think.)

Verdict: Fast-paced and action-packed, it’s an entertaining read. 7/10

Paul Simpson