The Cossack

by K.J. Lawrence

Winter 2014. In London, Daniel Brooking is a successful fine art photographer on the eve of his latest exhibition. In Ukraine, the Euromaidan protests are in full swing. The sudden disappearance of Daniel’s assistant upends his comfortable existence and pitches him into a world of competing international interests, where the life of one photographer is considered a small price to pay to maintain a secret that has lain hidden for over two hundred years.

PAPERBACK EDITION AVAILABLE 14 SEPTEMBER 2017

Reviews

"The plot is superb and utterly convincing... The characters are there isn't one who doesn't come off the page fully formed.... Days after finishing ''The Cossack'' I'm still mentally involved with the characters and that's always the sign of a good book... KJ Lawrence is a superb writer who can evoke a location in just a few words..." Five stars THE BOOKBAG www.thebookbag.co.uk

"This book is a page turner with an outstanding plot that comes to fruition after well-crafted twists and turns. The characters are true to life, relatable, and vivid. Daniel Brooking is the perfect protagonist. Lawrence has written an original novel that will keep readers engaged until the very end."
The BookLife Prize 2017

READ THE FIRST 100 PAGES FREE ON THE AUTHOR'S WEBSITE at www.kjlawrence.co.uk

358 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 14, 2017

About the author

KJ Lawrence’s first career was in publishing. A second career, in law, spanned a couple of decades before she decided it was time to make serious room for writing and photography (she has been making and selling pictures for many years). KJ Lawrence lives in London and Jersey, is an occasional and fairly terrible surfer and has becoming worryingly obsessed with a newly planted orchard. The Cossack is her first novel.

Reviews

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though this debut espionage thriller kicks off with a murder in winter 2014, it’s not the usual intercontinental bloodbath. In fact, in a nice twist, the killer—a Russian hit man named Mikhail Petrov—is having serious second thoughts about his choice of career. He regrets the string of corpses he’s left in his wake, and is weighing the likelihood he could change occupations without himself becoming a victim of the SVR—the heir to the KGB. With the death that opens this book, at least he gets what he came for: a set of 18th century banking documents.
Mikhail is an ethnic Russian who grew up in the Ukraine, and his victim is a young Ukrainian named Ivan, working in London as an assistant to noted photographer Daniel Brooking. Ivan has disappeared, but it’s happened before, and Daniel is not too worried about it until he receives a visit from Ivan’s friend, British intelligence official Anthony Graves. Finding out what happened to Ivan becomes a truth mission for Daniel. All he has to go on are some documents relating to a mysterious financial transaction during the American Revolution.
Across town, Mikhail Petrov likewise studies the papers he stole from Ivan. Though Ivan had cleverly divided his resources, both sets of documents converge on one location, a bank headquartered in New London, Connecticut. Mikhail travels there, and finds Daniel a half-step ahead of him. In author Lawrence’s hands, the shifts between these two characters’ points of view work well. They’re well-rounded, believable, interesting, and temperamentally different from each other. Daniel may be the novel’s main character, but Mikhail is more sympathetic than you’d expect and has considerably more skills for dealing with the hazards this unlikely duo eventually confronts.
You can almost smell the dust on the half-forgotten legend they uncover concerning a fortune in gold. What could this far-fetched tale have to do with modern-day Ukraine? Why was Ivan killed for delving into it? A question that does not occur to Daniel, at least at first, is whether poking a stick at this particular bear puts him at risk too.
Lawrence creates a strong sense of urgency by interspersing a parallel story line involving Ukrainian protests against the Russian-supported government, which peaked in 2014, the time when this novel is set. Ivan’s sister Yana, a physician, is an active participant in Kiev’s independence movement and a witness to the violence perpetrated by the Ukrainian police. Yana is poking a bear, too, determined to put an end to the careers of the worst offenders. Although this thread of the story is thinner than the main tale, it provides a real-life grounding and urgency to Daniel and Mikhail’s activities continents away.
The Cossack is a fine debut, with Lawrence a compelling—and compassionate—author worth watching.

[K.J. Lawrence]

Reviews for THE COSSACK by KJ Lawrence

“The plot is superb and utterly convincing...The characters are brilliant: there isn't one who doesn't come off the page fully formed...KJ Lawrence is a superb writer who can evoke a location in just a few words...Days after finishing The Cossack I'm still mentally involved with the characters...I'll never look at a tank of fish in quite the same way again…”
The Bookbag *****

" The Cossack is a fine debut, with Lawrence a compelling – and compassionate – author who is worth watching." Crime Fiction Lover. *****

"The Cossack is a strong addition to the thriller genre with an interesting plot-line, well developed characters and a lively pace – and recommended by us!" TBR The Book Reviewers. 4.5 stars

" This book is a page turner with an outstanding plot that comes to fruition after well-crafted twists and turns. The characters are true to life, relatable, and vivid. Daniel Brooking is the perfect protagonist. Lawrence has written an original novel that will keep readers engaged until the very end."
The BookLife Prize