Title – Fifth Columnist: A JJ Stoner short story (The Stoner Series Book 5)
Author – Frank Westworth
Genre – Thriller
Publication – Sept 2016
Pages – 50 Pages
My Rating – 4/5 Stars

Synopsis

An action-packed quick thriller featuring covert operative JJ Stoner, who uses sharp blades and blunt instruments to discreetly solve problems for the UK government. In Fifth Columnist, a bent copper is compromising national security but none of the evidence will stand up in court. That’s exactly why men like Stoner operate in the shadows, ready to terminate the target once an identity is confirmed…

Fifth Columnist is a quick thriller, an hour’s intrigue and entertainment. It features characters from the JJ Stoner / Killing Sisters series. You don’t need to have read any of the other stories in the series: you can start right here if you like.

As well as a complete, stand-alone short story, Fifth Columnist includes an excerpt from The Redemption Of Charm (to be published in March 2017).
Please note that FIFITH COLUMNIST is intended for an adult audience and contains explicit scenes of a sexual and/or violent nature.

Review

I actually read  Fifth Columnist last year not long after it was released but I’ve been waiting to review it until I had the time to read it again as part of The Stoner Stories collection. Look out for that review soon :).

Fifth columnist is the fifth tale in the JJ Stoner short stories. The author has also wrote two full length novels that feature some of the characters but I’ve not had a chance to read them yet and can confirm it didn’t affect how much I enjoyed or understood these short stories.

Once again Frank Westworth has given us a super short, informative and intriguing tale.

What Frank does well for me is that he gives you just enough information to follow the action but not enough so to give you the full picture. For me this works perfectly. As someone who is yet to read the full length novels it hooks me in.. makes me want to know more about the characters. I can quite imagine also that if I had read the longer novels then these shorts would build nicely onto the series.

Focusing on Fifth columnist itself I have to say I enjoyed it..there’s quite a build up with this one then BANG.. twist..and I was left rereading the page so I could fully take in what had just happened..It was the wow moment I was looking for at just the right time.

I enjoy short stories like this, it’s a great way to see how an author writes before committing to larger works.

Overall this is another great short from Frank which builds nicely onto the foundations set in the previous shorts. I highly recommend you read the shorts as a collection as I feel you get more from it that way. I’ll certainly be making time to fit more of Frank’s work into my reading schedule this year.

To find out more head to Goodreads or Amazon.
If you want to know more about The Stoner Stories collection my review will be posted next week but in the meantime you can find out more on Goodreads or Amazon.