The Man Who Never Was is Book 16 in The John Milton Series by Mark Dawson.
John has summoned his best associates and friends in Ziggy Penn and Hicks and added Beau Baxter's son Chase to the mix for an elaborate scheme to get justice for his old friend Beau. It will require an enormous amount of patience and Beau's son hasn't managed a lot of that.
They start the "play" in Amsterdam with a local drug dealer who hangs out at a club he owns. John "acquired" 5 mil in stolen money from his last escapade in Las Vegas, and he's outfitting himself in killer clothes and accessories to impress the dealer who is the link to the woman (La Bruja - The Witch) who heads up La Frontera in Columbia. La Frontera has absorbed and combined all the previous cartels under her "magical" fierceness and leadership. She's the one John wants.
The bizarre subplot which John has no knowledge of is the new "Control" has an arrangement with La Frontera, although the length and scope of it remain unknown to La Bruja. Her bodyguard is Number One in the resurrected Group 15. And what Group 15 has no knowledge of is that the Americans have been waiting for an opportunity to capture La Bruja with representatives from their multitude of alphabet agencies and Spec Ops ready to strike after an horrific bomb attack orchestrated by La Bruja.
The whole story is complex, catching John and his crew off guard but grateful for who ends up being involved. Chase goes rogue, determined to do what's necessary. It seems as if everything is going to end up tragically, but somehow the team rights its wrongs.
Milton's psychological realization that he needs that part of him he's tried to extinguish since he left the Group to accomplish this goal, has him focused on what he considers is the killer inside him. What he was. He's got to twist and turn his role to attempt to gain favor with these hardcore cartel-types and manages somehow to stay in the character he and Ziggy have created: the man who never was.
What John also knows at the end of this dangerous caper is that once again he'll be running for his life.
Profanity present.
Father, please continue to provide all that Mark needs to tell the stories he desires to tell. Apart from you, we can do nothing. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.