KILL AT FIRST LIGHT
HE’S DAMNED IF HE DOES. SHE’S DOOMED IF HE DOESN’T.
Holly Farmer is devastated by her twin brother’s suicide and blames her billionaire father John Farmer. Vowing revenge, she manipulates her ex-fiancé, high-flying City of London financier Charlie Belanger, into masterminding her abduction, in order to extract a large ransom from her father.
Driving through West Africa, Holly and her friend Matt Lander suffer a brutal abduction, the kidnappers and their hostages vanishing following a shootout with a routine police patrol. When Holly’s father learns of his daughter’s plight he seeks help from the Rannoch Group, a private military company specialising in hostage recovery. The hunt is on to locate the kidnappers.
In their stifling jungle hideout Holly is increasingly intimidated by one of her abductors. Growing fearful she’s been abandoned by both her father and Charlie, tension mounts between Holly and Matt. As her plot goes awry, their lives spiral into a deadly conflict with terrorists. Employing skills earned from the world of finance, and a ruthlessness honed on the battlefields of Syria, Charlie fights to maintain control of the ransom negotiations.
When the kidnappers raise the stakes, Charlie races to West Africa searching for Holly, risking everything to beat the kidnappers’ deadline.
But can Charlie rescue her in time, or will Holly fall victim to her web of deceit?
Reviews:
“The drama in each scene is frighteningly real, each character so ambiguous you can never guess their next move or their motive.” Dexter Petley, author.
“The situations and the characters stayed with me even when not reading the book, and I would analyse every detail to theorise what would happen next and why.”Linda Besser, Reedsy reviewer.
The idea for this novel came to me while driving through West Africa during a period of increasing jihadist activity. Tuareg contacts advised us (myself, my wife and two friends) against travelling certain routes in the east of Mali after we’d told them of our plans to follow a remote route along the north side of the Niger River, to the town of Gao. We eventually heeded their advice and were relieved to have done so after the vehicles carrying a small party of Europeans were ambushed by al Qaeda in the Maghreb.
Ransom negotiations were entered into between the abductors and their victims’ respective governments. For the single British hostage among them this did not end well, and he was eventually murdered.
This shocking and brutal outcome set me thinking about the experience of being held to ransom in such terrifying circumstances. All control stripped from you. Your life in the balance.
Kill at First Light is available on Kindle ebook and the paperback will be released from 30th May 2024. Please see the BOOKS page for further information, or go direct to AMAZON.