DAN MITCHELL

Full Name:	Dan Mitchell
Nationality:	British
Organization:	DCA
Occupation	Agent

Creator:	John Plimmer
Time Span:	2016 - 2018

ABOUT THE SERIES

Dan Mitchell is an agent with the British Deep Cover Agency (DCA).

That intelligence organization is said to be a part of the Foreign Office, at least it is located in the British Cabinet department's headquarters. It is run by a fellow named Harold Mellish who "rarely saw field operatives" though he was the one "responsible for enticing me into his team of faceless wonders, almost on Graduation Day at Cambridge".

Mitchell has been with that organization for roughly three years when we meet him in the first recorded adventure. He tells us that he had been recruited by DCA in part because of his proficiency in the Russian language "including a few dialects". He had taken up study of the language while in college and his studies had included a year living just outside St. Petersburg (as it is now known). As a result he could write and speak it as if a native.

But having achieved his goal, he decided he was not interested in further use of it so when the DCA came knocking with an offer, he turned it down, thinking it was likely for a desk job which did not interest him. Instead, he "had this misguided yearning for a more physical life and took a commission at Sandhurst before realizing [he] wasn't really officer material". He chose instead "life as a squaddy in the Parachute Regiment" followed eventually by his real ambition of getting into the SAS.

"It wasn't surprising however, that when a combatant is slung out of such an institution as the SAS for being over indulgent in the physical art of fighting, he was bound to catch the attention of the Security Forces." That included the DCA and this time he accepted.

When we meet him, Mitchell had just returned from the Soviet Union (the activity taking place likely in the late 70s or early 80s) where he had managed, under DCA orders, to infiltrate the "elite regiment known as the Spetsnaz". This return was because, following his orders, he had been engaged with and taken out half a Spetsnaz unit which made Moscow "peeved to say the least".

Good Line:
-"I still wasn't sure whether what I'd been told was genuinely the whole story, part of the story, or just a load of fiction shared to justify my deployment."

BOOKS

Number of Books:	8
First Appearance:	2016
Last Appearance:	2018


1			Cutting Edge Written by John Plimmer Copyright: 2016 "Following a two year operation working covertly with Russia’s crack unit the Spetsnaz, Mitchell is recalled to Whitehall where he is assigned to a different and more dangerous task. Michael Lowney is an ordinary bank clerk who discovers a loop hole in the bank’s security system. As a result the clerk transfers a vast fortune from customers accounts to one he controls, before disappearing from the country. Mitchell has the responsibility of tracking down Lowney and the missing funds but soon discovers there are other major issues which threaten the very structure of the western financial organizations."

2			Red Mist Written by John Plimmer Copyright: 2016 "The grandson of a Saudi Arabian Oil Sheik is kidnapped and Mitchell is tasked with working with a Soviet undercover agent Andri Alekseev, to trace the young victim and identify those responsible.:

3			The Food Mountain Written by John Plimmer Copyright: 2016 "A portion of [free gratis food grain from the Western powers to the Soviet Union] is corrupted, resulting in various sections of the Russian population becoming terminally ill. Mitchell is tasked with working alongside both Russian and French agents to track down those responsible and soon finds himself facing problems with the Mafia who pay for his services as a professional assassin.

4			The Neutron Claw Written by John Plimmer Copyright: 2016 "Dan Mitchell [becomes] embroiled in the kidnapping and assassination of an Indian Diplomat on British soil by a highly organized terrorist group. But the storyline goes further when Mitchell is faced with the imminent threat of a nuclear device being exploded in Paris by the same dissidents. The top agent has to work in the knowledge he is wanted by police in the United Kingdom for murder."

5			Chinese Extraction Written by John Plimmer Copyright: 2017 "Having spent four years away from the department that deals with international espionage, the former top secret agent Dan Mitchell has almost forgotten the old ways, living his life as a law lecturer at Edinburgh University. However, unexpected and in a violent manner, his former existence returns. Mitchell is persuaded to take on his most dangerous mission yet, infiltrating the Chinese mainland to rescue a captured American Agent to whom Mitchell owes his life."

6			Wrangel Island Written by John Plimmer Copyright: 2017 "Once again the western world is subjected to the threat of a nuclear explosion from an eccentric former Soviet scientist and Mitchell is tasked with eliminating the danger. Accompanied by a rookie agent, both men infiltrate the fortress on Wrangel Island and achieve their designated objective, but only after they experience torture and death."

7			Cyber Nightmare Written by John Plimmer Copyright: 2018 "Both London and Washington are severely disrupted when an intrusion is made into those telecommunications systems that support the transport infrastructures of both cities. £1 billion is the demand made to avoid further intrusion into other major security systems, including the military. Dan Mitchell and his two colleagues, the French agent Giselle Rimrod and his counterpart from the USSR, Andri Alekseev, are given the task of tracking down the perpetrator, a man who refers to himself as Cyber Nightmare."

8			Justice Casee Written by John Plimmer Copyright: 2018 "A young undercover agent working for the Deep Cover Agency of the British Foreign Office is brutally executed in Paris, and Mitchell is tasked with finding the killer and unravelling the international organisation thought responsible for the murder. An initial investigation into structured cases of Jury Nobbling in the United Kingdom, soon expands across the globe, introducing Mitchell and his associates to other, more devastating criminal activities."

MY COMMENTS

This series is an interesting one that tries to mix the suspense and paranoia that comes from being undercover inside an unfriendly nation with the thrills of an action thriller about a daring agent taking on very bad people. For the most part it does a pretty good job of it.

One fascinating way it does this is by having the protagonist, Dan Mitchell, infiltrate a Soviet Spetsnaz team and become one of its lauded operatives. Talk about chutzpah! One little slip in many ways would get a person killed!

The writing here is pretty good and the plots are definitely inventive without becoming silly. Good job on that.

GRADE

My Grade: B+

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