In the Requiem by Hailey Turner

In the Requiem by Hailey Turner

Narrated by Greg Boudreaux

Oh. My. God. Hailey Turner pulls out all the stops in this, the final instalment of her military/futuristic Metahumans Files series, bringing the overarching storyline to a thrilling, high-stakes close… but not without leaving a couple of unanswered questions that leave the door ajar for future stories. And it will come as no surprise when I say that Greg Boudreaux – who has done some truly incredible work throughout the series – makes it five for five with a barnstorming performance that had me smiling, sighing, blushing, fuming and sobbing into my dinner.

Besides being the culmination of a plot arc, In the Requiem also features a large number of recurring secondary characters, and while the author does include some backstory and background information about both plot and characters, I don’t think this story will make a great deal of sense if you haven’t read or listened to the books that precede it. I’m assuming that anyone who has made it to this point knows the story so far…

For over a year, Captain Jamie Callahan and members of Alpha Team have been working to track down and eliminate whoever is manufacturing Splice (a deadly chemical weapon) and selling it on the black market. Jamie and his team are now sure they know who is behind it all – Stanislav Pavluhkin, a wealthy and powerful member of the Russian Bratva and a metahuman with precognitive powers. Jamie’s association with Pavluhkin as part of an undercover mission has come to light, and his supposed near-criminal actions have seriously tarnished his reputation; in addition, his father’s presidential campaign has been all but destroyed by the terrorist attack in Boston and Richard is desperately attempting to do some damage control – but it’s going to take little short of a miracle to return him to his position as front-runner. He’s still demanding that Jamie spend time with him on the campaign trail so the family can present a united front, but Jamie is finding it harder and harder to remain separated from his team and, most importantly, from the man he loves. He’s been torn between dedication to his job, his lover and his family for more than a year, and the strain is showing; it’s time to make a move against Pavluhkin and bring him down once and for all – but how does one outmanoeuvre someone who can see all possible futures?

The story has been building inexorably towards this point since the first book, becoming more complex and compelling with every instalment. Hailey Turner is, as I’ve said elsewhere, a master-plotter, and she pulls together all the different threads of her story incredibly well, blending together a perfectly balanced mixture of political intrigue, fast-paced action, enduring friendships and steamy romance. Each book has been a satisfying story in itself while also contributing to the bigger picture, and she does her characters – and readers – proud here. There’s an atmosphere of real foreboding overshadowing this book, a sense that it’s now or never for Alpha Team – the stakes are higher than ever before and everything comes down to one shocking, gut-wrenching moment in which Jamie is forced to make an impossible choice.

The worldbuilding in this series is excellent, presenting the Earth of the future as a place in which climate change has seriously impacted the world’s geography and food sources (coffee is as expensive as gold, or perhaps moreso!), the author’s vivid, detailed scene-setting making it easy for me to believe people can fly, walk through walls, command fire and all the other super-duper powers possessed by our heroes. I love the camaraderie she’s created between the members of Alpha Team; there’s a sense of such deep and genuine affection between them that you know they’d walk through fire for each other, and when it comes to working in the field, they’re like a well-oiled machine. Their ‘family’ has now extended to include Matthew Gailiani, a captain in the Recon Marines and Alexei and Kyle’s former boss, and I was delighted with the reappearance of Liam Wessex, a former SAS officer and member of the royal family (thirteenth in line to the throne, we’re told!) who is a very old friend of Jamie’s; it was fitting that he had a role to play in the final showdown and I live in hope that Ms. Turner may one day write a story for him.

Her ability to write action scenes that are incredibly visual never ceases to impress me – I’ve said before that they play out like mini-action movies in my head – and I’ve also been impressed by the way she’s juggled two romantic relationships in the last couple of books without favouring one pairing over the other. In the Requiem is told from four points of view – Jamie’s, Kyle’s, Alexei’s and Sean’s – and each has a distinctive voice; Sean and Alexei went through the wringer in the last book (and so did I!) but have emerged from their ordeal in In the Blood stronger and more deeply in love than ever (the novella Out of the Ashes focuses on their recovery) while in this book it’s Jamie and Kyle who have to face their worst fears… and all I’m going to say about that is that Hailey Turner Is Eeeevil.

I don’t know what else I can say about Greg Boudreaux as a narrator that I haven’t already said. His work on this series has been outstanding – a real tour-de-force that I think very few narrators could match. (Plus – extra Brownie Points for Liam’s posh English accent). For one thing, he has created and consistently maintained a large number of character voices, male and female, throughout the series, making it easy for the listener to identify the members of Alpha Team, those at MDF HQ, Jamie’s and Sean’s families and the various bad guys who have passed through the pages. And for another, he doesn’t stint on anything when it comes to the emotional side of the story, be it happy or sad, passion or pain. The emotional connection he forges with the characters communicates itself to the listener so that we feel along with them (I suspect that if he was a metahuman, his super-power would be reducing-Caz-to-a-blubbering-mess-in-the-corner), his vivid, intense performance a perfect match for the vivid intensity of the story.

I’m sorry to see the series come to an end**, but it’s been a fantastic journey and while there are, as I said at the beginning, a couple of loose ends still to be tied up, In the Requiem ends on a high note, with all the major players in a good place and looking to the future. There are a few novellas to enjoy (which I’m informed will make it into audio at some point) and I certainly wouldn’t be averse to more stories set in this world. Huge thanks go to Hailey Turner for sharing her wonderful creations with us and to Greg Boudreaux for realising them so perfectly. The Metahuman Files is a truly enthralling series and one I’ll definitely be revisiting often.

**At time of writing, In the Requiem was the final book in the series, but the author has just announced plans to publish a sixth book (yay!), In the Solace (Liam’s story), in March 2020, with audio to follow later in the year.

Caz


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