*I received a free copy of this book, with thanks to the author. The decision to review and my opinions are my own.*
Blurb: With just one look, Cain can tell she’s in trouble.
Maria is in over her head with Oscar, a gangster she recorded a couple of sexy videos for when she needed the cash. Now he’s demanding she make more, and saying no isn’t an option.
She wants out, but she can’t do it alone. She’ll need help from someone with experience, brass balls, and a gun.
She needs Cain.
Mallorca is an island drenched in sun… and blood.
Vamos! is the third Cain thriller but you don’t need to have read them in order to follow the story – they all stand alone as individual thrillers. The plots all follow retired CIA agent Cain as he travels around Europe (Florence, Nice and now the Spanish island of Mallorca) saving damsels in distress and innocent lives, and turning every day into a bad day for any bad guys around.
In this outing, he is drawn to a beautiful woman in distress and finds himself helping her and her family evade a gang of local gangsters to escape her being further entangled in a web-cam porn hustle. He’s a bit out of his depth when it comes to the online investigations, but the running, hiding, scuffles and shoot-ups are right up his street, even if he is reluctant to get drawn back in (again!).
There is always an element of suspension of disbelief in this series, but this story feels somewhat more realistic than the last in terms of plot and characters. And, of course, there’s plenty of wish fulfilment as Cain white-knights and John-McClanes his way through the action and intrigue. (And as an 80s/90s child, I found myself humming the Littlest Hobo theme tune as he inevitably moves on to his next adventure by the end of the book!)
The whole story is straightforward spy hero fun and is ideal for thriller fans as an uncomplicated, adrenaline-fuelled summer beach read. And as it is the third in the series, you could always stock up before you go!
‘[…] Men like you are my hobby. Men like us.’
– Tom Trott, Vamos!
‘Men like us?’
‘Real men.’
‘I don’t know what that means.’
‘Yeah, you do. Who’s killed more people, do you think, that gun over there or you?’
Cain frowned. ‘It’s not something I care to think about.’
‘Lost count?’
‘I prefer to count the lives I’ve saved.’
Pre-Order Link: Vamos! on Amazon
About the author
Tom Trott is an author, film nerd, and proverbial Brighton rock. He lives in Brighton, UK, with his wife and their daughter. His latest thriller, The Florentine, was published in 2022.
He wrote a short comedy play that was performed at the Theatre Royal Brighton in May 2014 as part of the Brighton Festival, a television pilot for the local Brighton channel, and won the Empire Award (thriller category) in the 2015 New York Screenplay Contest.
He published his first novel, You Can’t Make Old Friends, in 2016, since then he has written five more books. He writes film reviews and features for Frame Rated.
His inspirations as a writer come from a diverse range of storytellers including Raymond Chandler, Agatha Christie, Joel & Ethan Coen, Daphne du Maurier, Alfred Hitchcock, Ira Levin, Quentin Tarantino, and many more books and films beside.
Find more from Tom Trott at his website here, or follow him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Goodreads.
You can find my thoughts on book one in this series, The Florentine here and book two, The Nice Guy and the Devil, here; his Brighton Detective trilogy on the following links: You Can’t Make Old Friends, Choose Your Parents Wisely, It Never Goes Away; my review of his horror novel, The Forbidden Zone here, and Tom’s thoughts on Ira Levin here.
Bookshine And Readbows 