Bloomsbury presents Prey by Graham Hurley, read by Andrew Cullum.
A breathtaking thriller combining espionage and combat, Prey is the story of the brutal battle for the skies during the darkest days of World War II.
1943. The war is turning against the Third Reich, but the Luftwaffe are eagerly exploiting a lethal blind spot in the RAF’s Lancaster bombers with their innovative upward-firing cannon.
MI5's Tam Moncrieff lobbies ceaselessly for a solution in the face of officials' indifference. His quest sees him accompanying a bombing raid deep into Nazi Germany that will change the course of the war.
The target is the Nazis' flagship city of Nuremberg. With bright moonlight and clear visibility, the conditions are perfect… for the enemy. The Luftwaffe are jubilant as they take out plane after plane.
With so many men dead or captured, can RAF Bomber Command overcome their darkest hour, when the predators have become the prey?
Graham Hurley's gripping Spoils of War Collection showcases key events of World War II and the books can be read in any order. For fans of Alan Furst, Simon Scarrow and John le Carré.
Reviews for the Spoils of War Collection
'Historical fiction of a high order' The Times 'Compelling and richly entertaining' Daily Mail 'Hurley [has] few rivals in this genre' Sunday Telegraph
Graham Hurley was born November, 1946 in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex. His seaside childhood was punctuated by football, swimming, afternoons on the dodgems, run-ins with the police, multiple raids on the local library - plus near-total immersion in English post-war movies.
Directed and produced documentaries for ITV through two decades, winning a number of national and international awards. Launched a writing career on the back of a six-part drama commission for ITV: "Rules of Engagement". Left TV and became full time writer in 1991.
Authored nine stand-alone thrillers plus "Airshow", a fly-on-the-wall novel-length piece of reportage, before accepting Orion invitation to become a crime writer. Drew gleefully on home-town Portsmouth (“Pompey”) as the basis for an on-going series featuring D/I Joe Faraday and D/C Paul Winter.
Contributed five years of personal columns to the Portsmouth News, penned a number of plays and dramatic monologues for local production (including the city’s millenium celebration, "Willoughby and Son"), then decamped to Devon for a more considered take on Pompey low-life.
The Faraday series came to an end after 12 books. Healthy sales at home and abroad, plus mega-successful French TV adaptations, tempted Orion to commission a spin-off series, set in the West Country, featuring D/S Jimmy Suttle.
Launch title - "Western Approaches" - published 2012. "Touching Distance" to hit the bookstores next month (21st November).
Has recently self-published a number of titles on Kindle including "Strictly No Flowers" (a dark take on crime fiction), "Estuary" (a deeply personal memoir) and "Backstory" (how and why he came to write the Faraday series).
Married to the delectable Lin. Three grown-up sons (Tom, Jack and Woody). Plus corking grandson Dylan.
Graham Hurley is such a versatile and gifted writer and has received far less acclaim than he deserves.
The Faraday/Winter Portsmouth police procedurals were a magnificent achievement that I still return to and this is the eleventh in the ongoing Spoils of War series which has enthralled me from the beginning.
This is an excellent addition and is a brilliantly paced and researched account of the night fighter wars over Germany and a fatal weakness in design that led to many unnecessary deaths and the struggle to rectify it.