The Dante Device

by Francis Drake, Beryl Drake (Editor)

A gritty techno-thriller set in the world of mega-businesses, corruption and criminal organisations with some of the deepest issues surrounding the mind, death and beyond involving the highest levels of the Catholic Church and the Intelligence Services of several countries. Murder and mayhem. High speed action entwined with love, lust and murder across half the world. From icy-depths of winter in cruel conditions, sun-kissed beaches, impenetrable forest, a volcano mist-shrouded with fatal possibilities as well as mountains where a single mis-step is the end. People are running and fighting for their lives and even more… their sanity. Meddling with scientific advances in areas where every major country desperately wants the lead. Questions that should not be asked; places man is not meant to go. The inscrutable orient, freewheeling corporate deception involving billions in currency; the England of quiet policemen, the Italy of ebullient Italians, operatives from the USA and the inscrutable orient. The action moves fast across the globe taking in the teeming waterborne life of Hong Kong, moving to an idyllic Mediterranean island and the bright colours of Italy. Beneath the colour and gaiety, falling in love and lust, run the greasy coils of International crime. Italian Princesses of the old nobility activate a web of loyalty and geriatric supporters most people have long consigned to the dustbin. Running, fleeing for life across half a world. Frantic flight and fighting on the Amalfi coast with desperate confrontation in the mountains of Crete and by its lustrous seas. The good the bad and the ugly come together in something that is science perverted and crimes surrounding state of the art technology being milked for every penny and cent costing countries billions in currency. The enemy ought to be found by straightforward police-intelligence work the trouble may be to discover what face the enemy is wearing.

862 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 18, 2021

About the author

Sir Francis Drake, Vice Admiral, (c. 1540 – 1595) was an English privateer, navigator, slaver, and politician of the Elizabethan era. Queen Elizabeth I awarded Drake knighthood in 1581. He was second-in-command of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588, subordinate only to Charles Howard and the Queen herself. He died of dysentery after unsuccessfully attacking San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1595.

His exploits were legendary, making him a hero to the English but a simple pirate to the Spaniards. He was known as "El Draque". (This name probably originated from the old Spanish meaning "the Dragon" derived from the Latin draco, meaning 'serpent', an obvious play on his family name which in archaic English has the same etymological root). King Philip II was claimed to have offered a reward of 20,000 ducats (about £4m or $8m by modern standards) for his life.

He is famous for (among other things) sailing around the world, returning to England in 1580.