Jim Barry and his wife Belle live a comfortable suburban life in New Jersey, until a young boy is killed in a freak accident - and the grieving father demands an extraordinary Jim Barry must replace the sinister Stefan Sebastayen’s son with his own, or the whole family will be slaughtered... Meanwhile single-mother Wendy Blatand is trying hard to bring up her son Pete in an Arizona trailer-park while working as a waitress - until one night Pete is abducted...
Robert Ryan was born in Liverpool but moved to London when he was eighteen to attend university. He lectured in natural sciences for several years before moving into journalism in the mid-1980s, first with The Face and then the Dylan Jones-edited Arena. During this time, he also wrote for The Daily Telegraph, US GQ, US Conde Nast Traveler, Esquire and The Sunday Times.
Robert Ryan lives in North London with his wife and three children.
I enjoyed the writing. The author has woven Serbian genocide with Black Hawk down with fertility black market quite well. A bit confusing at the beginning as it is difficult to keep up with the various strands of the story.
I thought this started well with a number of seemingly separate stories. I realised that these would all coalesce as the tale went on and this is indeed what happened.
I have really enjoyed the Rob Ryan Dr Watson series, set in World War I so this was a completely different type of book from this author, for me at least.
Thought it worked reasonably well with a fairly convoluted plot and, without giving too much away, a high octane denouement. Overall only gave this a three star as not convinced some of the characters were well enough drawn for the reader to really care too much what ultimately happened to them. Quite enjoyable though and if you like this sort of book you should find this well worth reading.