A former Customs and Police Officer, Andrew Hill’s first book in a crime series set in the New Forest, where he lived for 30 years, will be published in Spring 2022. An avid reader across the crime genre and regular at crime writing festivals, he now lives in West Sussex and works in property.
Tony Kent’s third novel in the Devlin & Dempsey series starts with a large bang! Flight AA16, carrying potential U.S. Presidential candidate Dale Victor, explodes in mid-flight scattering debris and over 500 passengers over several grid references.
All the evidence points to a bomb planted by a baggage handler and Syrian refugee, Nizar Mansour. So much so that, and in fear for his life, he runs into Stoke Newington Police Station and confesses to the crime.
When the U.S. Secret Service muscle in on the interview with Nizar, DCI Bruce Bull believes that all is not as it seems. He calls in lawyer Will Duffy, a solicitor well-known for not being intimidated; as well as having a history of defending clients from the criminal underworld. Duffy, in turn leans on Michael Devlin to join the defense team. Devlin tips off his partner and TV reporter, Sarah Truman.
When the news of the explosion and Victor’s death hits America, Joe Dempsey, now an agent with the U.N.’s I.S.B. starts viewing footage of Victor’s recent interviews. Perhaps the presidential hopeful had dirt on the current White House occupant, John Knowles? When Dempsey takes his suspicions to his boss Elizabeth Kirk, she encourages him to keep digging.
On the surface, Knowles is a decorated former SEAL and perceived as a hero for an action under fire in Afghanistan. However, all may not be as it seems, so will Knowles’s assistants, Kelvin Cunningham and Nicolas Dupart do what they can in order to protect the President?
Where will Secret Service Agent Eden Grace’s loyalties lie?
Kent’s narrative traverses the U.K. to the U.S. seamlessly; even taking the reader to tense fire-fights in Manhattan and Afghanistan. There’s no sacrifice in the pace with the introduction of secondary characters; it serves only to further flesh-out this well-realised plot.
We all love a conspiracy theory, and this one has its roots not too far from the realms of imaginative possibility.
Action packed, beautifully paced and maybe a little closer to the truth than we’d like to believe.
Another knockout from this exciting author.
