The Gilgamesh Conspiracy by Jeffrey Fleming.

Gerry Tate is a British MI6 intelligence agent and she is an expert in the Middle East. Follow her in the quest to get to the bottom of a secret operation codenamed Gilgamesh.

This novel is a regular conspiracy tale about Iraq, the alleged Weapons of Mass Destruction and the illegal invasion in 2003. Although this is a conspiracy story, because of the real historical facts and the people involved, it is quite cross-genre with historical fiction. Clearly a lot of background and culture have been researched to form the backbone of this novel. But like the famous dossier presented to the British parliament in 2002, this novel is also sexed up. Gerry Tate is not a deskbound agent but comes out all guns blazing.

Conspiracies are one of my favourite book genres. The Gilgamesh Conspiracy is a realistic scenario and it is quite believable. The workings of security and government agencies are spot on in this novel. I found this book to be a good read although the details of a hidden secret document are withheld from the reader almost to the end. It was frustrating that this document was constantly hinted at but the contents had to remain secret and the reader is kept in the dark, just like Gerry Tate. Also I did not like how the time frame flicked back and forth from the First Gulf War in the 80’s - through many conflicts between and 2009 when this story ends. I feel this story could have been told from the 80’s to 2009 without going back and forth. Maybe Jeffrey has his reasons for writing his novel in this flashback fashion but it is beyond me and non-linear timeframe novels are one of my pet hates.

I liked the historical context and accuracy of this novel. Featuring real people in this story added to the realism. However, rather a lot of violent action padded out this story. As an action thriller this novel fails but as a conspiracy it is okay. What is silly though is the amount of theft and violence Gerry Tate is involved in. Most intelligence work involves a huge amount of time monitoring internet activity and individuals. Most intelligence agents do not go around stealing lots of gear and killing people. Gerry Tate does have some cover identities using different names which is a shade confusing, so much so that the author uses her wrong name when she is sailing on a yacht!

I enjoyed reading the Gilgamesh Conspiracy, it is a good read that I will vote 4 stars. It is not the best of conspiracy novels but is still a good read. I have not voted it the top score of 5 stars because of the lack of a rigid straight ahead timeframe, unrealistic amounts of theft and violence plus the unnecessary sexing up of the story, even though the actions of Fiona brought a smile to my face!

The Gilgamesh Conspiracy is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook and was written in 2014.