“Sixty-eight dead and nearly 300 injured in a hostile vehicle and bomb attack on a community festival in Birmingham, the country is in shock.

Battling the mental turmoil of the aftermath, Alex, a former Army communications specialist, stumbles across the UK Terror Watch List – he cannot resist the challenge of stealing the list from under the nose of his contract supervisor, Lucy Butler, a razor sharp and headstrong Intelligence Corps corporal with big ambitions.

Wrestling with his conscience and the ethics of tackling unconvicted suspects, Alex enlists the help of famed former UK Special Forces Warrant Officer, Craig Medhurst. Alex struggles to win the respect of Craig’s core team, but together they hatch a daring plan to act on their selected targets.

Can Alex use his charm to persuade Corporal Butler to join them?”

Hello and welcome to damppebbles. Today I am handing the keys over to my trusty sidekick and guest reviewer, Ryan, who is sharing his review of The Watch List on the final day of the blog tour. The Watch List was self-published by the author, Joseph Mitcham, on 2nd December 2019 and Ryan received a free review copy of the book which hasn’t influenced his review. Let’s see what he thought…

The Watch List by Joseph Mitcham is a fascinating book about temptation and ethics. It put me in mind of the “Choose your own adventure books” of my youth, but this time the lead character had already taken the decisions and the reader is watching events play out.

Alex, as the main character, is a confident and high skilled IT specialist with a background in the army. Called in to fix an inter-service IT system he finds he has a dilemma. The UK Terror Watch List is on the system and Alex knows he has the skills to take it without anyone knowing. The author does a great job of communicating the mix of guilt, fear and excitement swirling through Alex as he reaches his decision. But then we see more choices; decision 2, what to do with the list? Decision 3, share his secret with Lucy Butler or not? Each decision has consequences, and when he takes them, the circumstances and subsequent decisions seem to flow out of Alex’s control.

I really enjoyed this book. The author has started with an interesting premise and built it into a strong story where good and bad can sometimes appear similar, and is very dependent on perspective. Mitcham doesn’t shy away from making his characters have difficult ethical discussions. Wrestling with their conscience on whether to take action against those who have, as yet, done nothing wrong except believe something different from Alex’s growing band of vigilantes.

The characters in this story are well written and all come to the mission with different approaches. Alex, as an information specialist, starts off by being fascinated with the challenge of gaining the list. But then he becomes involved in ensuring that the communications are right. Now I never thought I would find the planning and methods of communications for a mission interesting, but the methods used here are fascinating and the author brings an educated perspective to this often overlooked area of a story. Lucy Butler is an enigma, strong and forthright but never clearly on anyone’s side. What is she planning and will she stop Alex’s plans in their track? Finally Craig, ex-special forces, quick with decisions and deadly in his execution of them, can he be trusted not to go too far?

So, going back to the ‘choose your own adventure’ books. Should you read this book – choose ‘yes’ and you will have chosen well. You’ll find an interesting book with a great story and strong characters.

Ryan chose to read and review a free digital copy of The Watch List. The above review is his own unbiased opinion.

The Watch List by Joseph Mitcham was published in the UK on 2nd December2019 and is available in paperback and digital formats (please note, the following links are affiliate links which mean I receive a small percentage of the purchase price at no extra cost to you): | amazon.co.uk | amazon.com | Goodreads |

Joseph Mitcham served with the British military in elite and technical units for over 16 years. His service not only gave him a thorough tactical and technical understanding of some of techniques and processes employed in his first novel, it also provided him with the opportunity to develop himself, earning a first class honours degree in business leadership by the end of his service.

The inspiration for writing ‘The Watch List’ was taken from personal experiences from the roles that he has served in and characteristics from some of the people that he has served with. Joseph has written an incredible, yet compellingly credible story that plays out in our world as he sees it today.