Humphrey Hawksley's name is familiar to millions as a leading BBC Foreign Affairs correspondent, shouting over the gunfire in Kosovo or Iraq.
But he is also an acclaimed international thriller writer, and for the first time three of his best works are collected here in one volume:
Ceremony of Innocence:
Mike McKillop was once a respected Hong Kong policeman. But now, living alone after his Chinese wife disappeared to the mainland with their two children, he is a pen-pusher, wallowing in alcoholic self-pity.
He thinks the glory days are long over.
But the past is about to catch up with him.
Red Spirit:
Early 1989. The Soviet Union is about to collapse. And a new superpower is about to emerge. China.
But it is a country of secrets - which only one woman can unlock.
If she can stay alive...
Absolute Measures:
Twins. Left orphaned, and abandoned. And with a burning desire to wreak vengeance on the world.
After British special forces accidentally kill their parents in the Sudan, Samira and Yasin Omer are adopted by a wealthy Filipino businessman. They are raised in a world of luxury and privilege. But when the Asian economic crisis plunges their country into chaos, Yasin decides that this time he will retaliate.
He conceives of a terrible plan: one that will shake the world, and leave thousands dead.
Only two people can stop him.
Humphrey Hawksley's books are perfect for fans of Lee Child, Robert Ludlum, Frederick Forsyth and Robert Harris.
All three thrillers have been brilliantly reviewed:
'This is the low-down on Foreign Affairs which won't make the Nine O'Clock News' (Alan Stewart)
'A gripping story, told with great imagination, but also with the knowledge and authority that one rarely sees in such thrillers' (Jon Swain, Sunday Times)
'Provocative and topical' (The Daily Telegraph)
'Exotic settings...exciting thriller fare...a tense climax.' (Phillip Knightley, The Mail-on-Sunday)
'A complex and convincing thriller ....an intriguing, if violent, vision of the near future.' (The New Scientist)
'The scariest milieu since the Cold War washed out.' (Kirkus Associates)
'Packed with authentic details... keeps suspense levels high.' (Publisher's Weekly)
'Humphrey Hawksley is one of only a handful of writers taking the thriller in important new directions.' (Craig Thomas)
Humphrey Hawksley has been a BBC correspondent specialising in Asia for many years, and has reported from troublespots such as Kosovo and Iraq. In the 1980s he was in India, the Philippines and Sri Lanka - from where he was expelled while covering the Tamil war. From 1990 he was based in Hong Kong and in 1994 moved to Beijing to open the BBC's first television bureau in China.
Humphrey is an award-winning author, podcaster and journalist whose assignments with the BBC have taken him to crises all over the world. The three books in his future history series -- Dragonstrike, Dragonfire and The Third World War -- have been praised as authentic, catastrophic scenarios which begin with a Chinese strike in the South China Sea. His Rake Ozenna espionage thriller series is set in the Arctic and High North, beginning with Man on Ice and a Russian invasion of the Alaskan island of Little Diomede. Rake is an island native and a special forces veteran with the Alaska National Guard. The late, great Nelson de Mille applauded Rake as being smart and tough, 'and we’re glad to have him on our side.' Humphrey's non-fiction work includes Democracy Kills: What’s So Good About Having The Vote, published during the Iraq civil war and Asian Waters: The Struggle over the Indo-Pacific and the Challenge to American Power which examines the impact of Chinese expansion in Asia. Humphrey hosts the bi-monthly Democracy Forum Debates. His work has appeared in most mainstream media outlets and he has been guest lecturer at universities and think tanks such as the RAND Corporation, The Center for Strategic and International Studies and MENSA Cambridge. He moderates the Democracy Forum Debates on international issues and is a host of the Goldster Magazine Show and podcast.
Rarely do I abandon a book but this is too tedious for me. Convoluted with difficult to remember names made it really hard work and in the end not worth the effort. Hope others have a better experience