Pay Back

by Brian Gallagher

When journalist Laura Brennan discovers that two recent interviewees have been murdered she knows that she’s stumbled onto a major story. But when her unorthodox efforts to uncover the trail leading to their murderer begins to yield fruit she realises that she has attracted the attention of Abdullah Majid.

A ruthless assassin, adept at assimilating in hostile environments, Majid has been hired by an Iraqi millionaire seeking vengeance for the loss of his family in the first Gulf War.

A conference of EU Foreign ministers that will be addressed by the US Secretary of State offers the chance for a spectacular political assassination which Majid is determined to take at all costs. With Chief Superintendent Jack Thompson and his protégé, Penny Harte masterminding the police efforts to catch the assassin, all the parties involved engage in a lethal series of ploys and counterploys. But each group knows that one way or another, the battle of wits is going to end in bloodshed.

274 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Brian Gallagher is a full-time writer whose plays and short stories have been produced in Ireland, Britain and Canada. He has worked extensively in radio and television, writing many dramas and documentaries. He collaborated with composer Shaun Purcell on the musical, Larkin, for which he wrote the book and lyrics, and on Winds of Change for RTE’s Lyric FM.

His first book of historical fiction for young readers was Across the Divide, set in the 1913 Dublin Lockout, followed by Taking Sides, set against the background of the Civil War, and Secrets and Shadows, an exciting spy novel that begins with the North Strand bombings during World War II.

Brian lives with his family in Dublin.