The Foo Sheng Key: A Thriller

by Neil Howarth

The Foo Sheng Key The Middle East teetering on the brink of war. One man willing to push them over the edge. A man with great wealth and power, prepared to plunge the whole world into chaos in the simple, selfish act of revenge. And a twelve year old boy who stands in his way.The key to a dangerous secret Jai has a happy life as a novice monk in a Tibetan monastery, protected from afar by his mother, an important Chinese scientist. Until one day his happy life is shattered. Soldiers attack the monastery, killing all inside except for Jai, who escapes into the snow. Jai, unknowingly, has become the vital key in a deadly secret, and his pursuers want him desperately - Dead or Alive.A deadly chase across the roof of the world Jai finds himself alone in the vast mountainous wastes of Tibet, with the Chinese Security Service and dark factions of the CIA not far behind. But so also is his father, an American, who years before turned his back on his wife and son and thought he would never see them again. Now he has to step out from his past, face his demons, and make one last effort to put things right. Can Jai escape his pursuers and stay alive? Can he survive in the savage mountains of Tibet, and will he ever find his way home again?

472 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 17, 2013

About the author

I'm constantly, looking for stories, looking for strange, shady, tales that are true, and more important from the story perspective, that could have been true. I'm always treading that fine line between what happened and what could have happened, between people who actually existed and who might have been. I believe it's somewhere in the shadows, in the nooks and crannies between these elements that the great stories are found.

I've always been a scribbler as far back as I can remember. The Doomsday Legacy was my first published novel but not the first I have written. In fact I have a number of half written attempts that have been pushed aside over the years as my 'proper job' demanded more and more of my time.

I remember my first completed novel, 'The Song of the Nightingale'. It was my attempt at the great spy novel, a sort of homage to the 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' (still one of my all-time favourite books). It was a gritty spy story set in Berlin, amidst the chill of the cold war. Unfortunately, as I was typing the last pages, they were bulldozing down the Berlin wall, so that one melted pretty quickly and never saw the light of day. Still, writing is what you are, not what you do. It's never going to go away, so you just keep on trying.

As a young, Naval Radio Officer, then as a computer specialist for a multi-national company, I travelled the world and serviced many military, secret research and laboratory installations. When I started out as a computer engineer, all the military and secret installations in the south of England were on my patch: Porton Down (the Government bio-warfare laboratories), AWRE (Atomic Weapons Research Establishment), and Marconi Space and Research Laboratories, just to name a few. Whilst living in Eastern Europe, I came in contact with the real life Russian Mafiya and shady characters dealing in dodgy 'semi-precious metals' - a euphemism for anything coming out the back door of former Soviet military installations.

With the increase of public surveillance from organizations like the NSA and GCHQ, I often wonder what would happen if they looked at my browsing and download history!!!

I'm still out there looking - secrets, people in the shadows, story gems. I'm constantly searching. If you're interested why not join me on that journey ( www.neilhowarth.com ).

Reviews

[pamela boseman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Foo Cheng key

What a great interesting read. I hope to read more by this great author. The silence in this book was awesome!