#BlogTour - The Saboteur by Simon Conway

The terrorist Guy Fowle has escaped from prison.

Jude Lyon of MI-6 has been saved from a Syrian ambush by his lover - and enemy? - Yulia Ermolaeva. 

A mysterious Russian has been murdered in London and his thumb cut off.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has made an unfortunate social connection at a party, which he hopes he can keep secret.

And suddenly, the world is literally going up in flames.

Jude needs to start putting together the pieces of this jigsaw and quickly, because someone is putting into play a terrifying Russian plan to disable and destroy the UK. Once it has begun, it is designed to be impossible to stop.

Bad enough if that someone is the Russian government. Worse if it is the psychopathic genius Fowle, otherwise known as The Stranger.

Packed with stunning action, political intrigue, authentic tradecraft, emotion, shocks and nail-biting suspense, The Saboteur takes the spy thriller to new heights.

THE SABOTEUR carries on from Simon Conway’s excellent 2020 novel, THE STRANGER, which introduced MI6 agent, Jude Lyon, and sociopathic terrorist mastermind, Guy Fowle. In the aftermath of Fowle’s attack on the Houses of Parliament, the terrorist has been captured, but escapes during a chaotic court appearance. And we are straight into the action. And what action…

Simon Conway delivers a sequel, although it works as a standalone, in which everything is turned up to 11. Fowle’s actions are apocalyptic and, as Lyon pursues him, the survival of the United Kingdom itself is at stake. The novel is an exciting blend of le Carré-style espionage, James Bond action, with a healthy dose of cynicism about the motives of the British political elite. There are many characters who could have stepped out of today’s headlines and it is difficult not to see echoes of Brexit and the UK Government’s mishandling of many aspects of the Covid19 response in Conway’s Whitehall.

#BLOGTOUR - HALF PAST TOMORROW BY CHRIS MCGEORGE

Shirley Steadman, a 70 year old living in a small town in the North East of England, loves her volunteer work at the local hospital radio. She likes giving back to the community, and even more so, she likes getting out of the house. Haunted by the presence of her son, a reluctant Royal Navy officer who was lost at sea, and still in the shadow of her long dead abusive husband, she doesn’t like being alone much.

One day, at the radio station, she is playing around with the equipment and finds a frequency that was never there before. It is a pirate radio station, and as she listens as the presenter starts reading the news. But there is one problem – the news being reported is tomorrows. Shirley first thinks it is a mere misunderstanding – a wrong date. But she watches as everything reported comes true. At first, Shirley is in awe of the station, and happily tunes in to hear the news.  

But then the presenter starts reporting murders – murders that happen just the way they were reported. 

And Shirley is the only one who can stop them.

This was fun. Bloody, but fun. The prologue details the 2012 suicide of Gabe Steadman who throws himself off a Royal Navy ship. Present day, his mother, Shirley, a retired teacher volunteers at a local hospital radio, taking requests, interacting with and cheering up patients in the wards, and returns home to share her day with her cat, Moggins, and the ghost of her son, for whom she makes bacon and banana sandwiches, which he doesn’t eat, because he is dead.

One day Shirley stumbles upon a pirate ratio station which shares local news stories of small occurrences in Chester-le-Street, the baths closing down, the local baker falling off a ladder. Next day, the local baker having fallen off a ladder, Shirley realises that the news bulletin she heard was reporting the news a day early. When a minor milk float crash happens the day after it was reported, Shirley sets off to investigate. It is an intriguing mystery for the retired schoolteacher, something on which to exercise her mind and take her away from the machinations of the embroidery circle. And then the radio news predicts a murder…

In HALF-PAST TOMORROW, Chris McGeorge has delivered a twisty mystery-thriller which is in turns delightful, gentle and cosy, then bloody and shocking. The book keeps the reader engaged and full of questions, not only about the central radio news plot, but also why, and how, Shirley communicates with her son. There is humour and creepiness. The characters are great fun. There are superficial similarities with THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB but, only in tone, and pensioner protagonists, and the books are very different although readers of one would like the other, I feel.

I enjoyed HALF-PAST TOMORROW thoroughly. It is well plotted, well told, and everything is neatly and convincingly tied up at the end. 

Thanks to Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers @Tr4cyF3nt0n, Orion Publishing @orionbooks and the Author, @crmcgeorge for the invitation to the BlogTour.