Title: Dark Ocean (The Angus McKinnon thrillers Volume #2) by Nick Elliott
Genre: Currently #2589 on Amazon Best Sellers Rank in Kindle eBooks, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Thrillers, Espionage
Publisher: Seaward Publishing
Publication Date: August 16, 2017
Source: Review request by author
Title and Cover: Dark Ocean – Beautiful cover, sunken vessel subject of recovery
No stranger to the South China Sea or sunken ships, marine claims investigator Angus McKinnon gets a summon to Hong Kong to investigate a WWII wreck that lies in the depths. The claim on the cargo, however, involving a local ship owner, may not be all it’s cracked up to be. Suddenly, an old friend is murdered in Greece and Angus must return to Greece.
I read the debut novel, Sea of Gold, by Mr. Elliott four years ago and happily accepted his request that I download and read his sophomore novel. I really enjoyed that first book; the international tension of shipping, the knowledge exhibited of ships, ports of call, and marine law. Dark Ocean hit many landmarks with which I am familiar (Kowloon and Hong Kong), and I loved all the interesting tidbits of shipping detail, description of ports, and customs of the locals, including the exchange of commerce with Japan.
This book grabs your attention immediately then quickly goes sideways and instead of the investigation of a sunken vessel that was expected, widens to that of international intrigue that includes the collusion of a major cabal in what might be a hostile takeover–a far-reaching takeover. The threatening organization is deeply rooted and far ranging and has Angus flying to retrieve information from sources he thought well buried in his past–only to have to retrieve, relive, and sort. But as with any good thriller, a piece of the puzzle only leads to hints of acquiring the next piece. And the plot–and Angus–must go deeper.
The book is a well plotted, multi-layered suspense with slightly rogue alpha male management style being ever more deeply entangled in MI6 as they coordinate between agencies. There is so much (fictional?) information here reading as gospel that it becomes scary. The dialogue works very well, whether speaking with Chinese, Japanese, or English and Scottish, usually alluded to speaking in clipped accents, but not reduced to having been written in accent.
Protagonist Angus is well fleshed, while that of Claire, his immediate supervisor sans (current) love interest is not. Peripheral characters are described sufficiently enough to imagine threat without getting into unnecessary histories. Mr. Elliott’s stories are certainly unique, intelligent, and exhibit a keen knowledge of his subject matter and world locations. I downloaded this as a gift book in exchange for an honest review and can recommend as an international thriller, crime, intrigue and suspense tale that you’ll enjoy.
Rosepoint Publishing: Four point five of Five Stars 
The Author: (From Goodreads Author page) “Nick Elliott delivers in spades when it comes to fast-paced, intelligent, international thrillers. You feel, smell and touch every authentically crafted location; you’re expertly drawn into a maze of shadows and sinister organizations and characters where nothing is what it seems. This really is thriller writing of the highest calibre.” Craig Russell, award-winning author of the bestselling and critically acclaimed Jan Fabel and Lennox crime thrillers. 
Over an eventful career in international shipping, Nick Elliott has handled dozens of maritime claims, casualties and other assorted mishaps throughout the Far East, the East Med and Black Sea. Many of these cases provide inspiration for his series of Angus McKinnon thrillers. He worked as a ship’s agent in Hong Kong and Tokyo for twenty years and Piraeus for a further eight. Along the way he’s been sent to the Pacific island of Nauru to quell fears of a typhoid epidemic; hidden in a storm drain during an inter-gang shootout in Guam; investigated the theft of a cargo of ethyl alcohol in Georgia tracing both cargo and the armed gang of thieves to North Ossetia; and oversaw the welfare, disembarkation and migration from Hong Kong to the UK of 1,002 Vietnamese boat people rescued by a British ship in the South China Sea.
He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers and now divides his time between Scotland and Greece. Dark Ocean, his second thriller in the Angus McKinnon series, was published on Amazon in August 2017: http://amzn.to/2vIPRyJ Nick’s first book, Sea of Gold, is also available from Amazon: http://amzn.to/1jkQUYT You can sign up for Nick’s newsletter from his website: http://www.nickelliott.org ©2018 Virginia Williams 
Rosepoint Publishing 
Interesting… Love to read your reviews. Always so well-balanced.
LikeLiked by 1 person
whoa! so appreciate those words. thank you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
😊 very welcome
LikeLike