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Back with Vengeance |
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When Jay McCaulay, who specialises in tracing missing persons, wakes drugged in a strange hotel room, she knows things can only get worse.
She isn't in the UK. She's in Moscow, and she has no idea how she got there.
Memory shot to pieces, Jay returns home to find her beloved uncle Duncan missing.
Apparently, she'd been searching for Duncan when she was kidnapped, and when Nikolai, an old friend of Duncan's, turns up asking questions, alarm bells start ringing.
For Nikolai Koslov is one of the UK's resident Russian oligarchs . . .
Soon Jay is entangled in a web of lies and betrayals that stretches from Newbury Race Course to Siberia.
But, as the body count rises, it's clear that Jay's biggest threat may be Duncan himself -
an honourable family man who seems determined to destroy himself and all he holds dear.
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Extract |
A high pitched ringing started in Jay's head. She was staring at Vladimir, but she wasn't seeing him.
The word Sinsk had triggered a memory and she could see Anna as clear as day.
About the same age as Jay, the journalist was small-boned and pretty, with dyed-blonde hair that was black at the roots.
She could picture them in a bar, and they were laughing and drinking vodka, and then the scene abruptly switched.
Anna was no longer laughing. She was cowering naked on a tiled floor.
She had bruises all over her body, and she was bleeding from her mouth. She was sobbing.
Jay stood over her, a Sig Sauer 9mm pistol in both hands. It was pointing at Anna.
And then it fired.
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Anna fell backwards, her legs kicking.
Blood smeared her torso and dribbled over the tiles.
She groaned for a long time before she finally lay still.
Her arms were spread wide, her left leg twisted beneath her.
Tears streaked her face. Her eyes were open. She was looking straight at Jay.
Her expression seemed to forgive her.
What had Anna done to provoke Jay into killing her?
Where was her body? Where had it happened?
At least now she had an idea why her brain was having accessing her memory;
it was trying to protect her from facing the same traumatic event all over again.
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Background |
I was talking to fellow author Meg Gardiner about Russia,
and she relayed a story of a friend of hers in the military, who, during a visit to the Eastern Bloc, lost a day of his life.
He was convinced he'd been drugged but had no proof.
This immediately made me wonder how terrifying it would be to awake somewhere foreign, without knowing how you got there.
Not long afterwards, I read an article on a new drug that can block, dilute and even delete memories.
This research is aimed at treating PTSD or other traumatic events, where the victim is disabled by flashbacks.
The drug blocks these memories, enabling the victim to return to work and live a normal life.
Where someone creates something for the greater good, someone else will invariably use it to do evil.
Which is where my Russian oligarch steps in, because he doesn't want Jay to remember the truth . . .
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Reviews |
'Someone said, somewhere, that there are no decent British crime thrillers. Hello, I've found one.'
Honest Fi's Book Diary
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'Fans of action thrillers with an international flavour will find Carver's suspenseful, high-stakes, high-octane adventure a page-turning must read.'
Booklist
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'British author Carver doesn't make it easy for her heroine . . . climactic scenes in both Russia and Britain test Jay's mettle and prove she's up for further adventures.'
Publishers Weekly
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