Tuesday, 15 November 2016

Say A Little Prayer by Giles O'Bryen (Thriller)

 15th November 2016, Thomas and Mercer, 434 pages, Ebook 

Book summary from the press release
Kosovo, 1999. James Palatine of the Army Intelligence Corps is on a clandestine mission to locate Serbian anti-aircraft units in advance of a NATO bombing campaign. 
 
A woman’s desperate cry for help draws his unit to a remote farm, where Palatine makes a split-second decision that he profoundly regrets. A few hours later he sees a chance to redeem himself – in his own eyes, at least – when he finds a young girl close to death in the freezing woods. But rescuing the girl proves only to be the beginning of a new nightmare. 
 
Against a backdrop of impending war, Palatine’s life spirals into an underworld of predatory gangsters and unscrupulous spies – and takes him on a journey deep into the darkness within his own soul.

Nayu's thoughts 
This isn't technically a review as I haven't read the book, but I featured book 1 a few months ago, so felt you'd like to know about the sequel too. Do check it out!

Extra info on the book's setting also in the press release:
The bombing of and subsequent invasion of Kosovo by NATO forces. which began in March 1999, was the last act in the Yugoslav Wars, which Tony Blair described as “a battle between good and evil”. Among the “evil”, presumably, were the UN functionaries whose human trafficking activities were exposed by Kathryn Bolkovac in her book The Whistleblower
 
In the run-up to the Iraq war of 2003, Kosovo was frequently cited as an example of how a military invasion could be morally justifiable. 
 
Say a Little Prayer is partly set at the farcical Rambouillet Peace Conference, and features past and present presidents of Kosovo and the British Foreign Secretary at the time, Robin Cook. 

Author info
Giles O’Bryen is married with three children and lives in London. During a long career in publishing, he has edited books by Sir Max Hastings, Jonathan Dimbleby, Sir Fred Hoyle and Jonathan Coe. Most recently he was managing director of the political publisher Verso. 

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