THIMBLES
This is a story about spymasters, the spies they run, and the cases they investigate.
It's also a story about murder, blackmail, and kidnapping., and the police who investigate such heinous crimes. Sometimes such investigations eventually weave together and become inseparable.
Problems occur when power is misused and corruption is present.
A short extract goes like this....
As
the driver of the Mercedes looked to his offside, a white Transit van careering
down the middle lane ploughed into the offside of the grey car and spun it
around again.
A look of total horror filled the Mercedes driver’s face when he
whirled around the carriageway having completely lost control.
Another wagon,
this time in the slow lane, smashed into the rear of the Mercedes causing it to
roll over onto its roof.
Like
a rag doll, the driver lay upside down hanging from his seat belt as the
Mercedes rolled over and over in the centre of the southbound carriageway.
Eventually,
the grey Mercedes came to a standstill.
Steam blew from its engine block, the
windscreen and rear window exploded into a thousand pieces of tiny glass, and
the bodywork mangled into a twisted, bizarre ruin.
Finally,
when an austere silence dominated the scene, the rear diplomatic number plate
clattered to the ground.
A loose screw that had once secured the plate bounced
on the tarmac and rolled relentlessly towards the hard shoulder.
In
the aftermath of the tragedy, police attended the scene, closed the motorway,
and began an investigation into the fatal collision.
Hours later, alerted by
the senior officer on site, an unmarked helicopter landed unceremoniously on
the carriageway and several plainclothes personnel made their way to the rear
of a police vehicle where the body of the Mercedes driver had been laid out.
‘Mikhail
Korobov,’ declared Antonia Harston-Browne, the red-headed lady from MI5,
Britain’s Security Service.
‘You
know him then?’ remarked Boyd, Commander of the nation’s Special Crime Unit.
‘Not
in a casual or private capacity,’ replied Antonia. ‘However, I have endured a
long-held interest in the deceased.’
‘Why?’
questioned Boyd.
‘Because
he works out of the Russian Embassy and he has long been suspected of being a
member of the Russian Intelligence Service.’
‘His
brief?’ quizzed Boyd.
‘How
long have you got?’ queried Antonia.
... It's just a collision on a motorway. They happen every day.
But
tomorrow. What of tomorrow?
Herewith the story of ‘Thimbles’… The Spymasters… The Good, the Bad, and the Rogue… and the locked up…
There’s a circus in town too. But there’s also an arsonist. a diamond smuggler, a murderer, an informant, and a man on the verge of suicide.
Will they all meet?
There are two prizes to play for.
One is a state of the art globally important computerised system. The other is freedom.
This incomparable novel is based in Cumbria, London, Scotland, Russia, and elsewhere in Europe.
It tells the simultaneous story of individual people all doing various things in different places that seem to be geographically poles apart.
Each character involved, however, is not only the centre of an individual tale to be told.
They are each a crucial component in the telling of the central story and impact both directly, and indirectly, on the terrifying and often horrific situation the chief characters eventually find themselves in.
Beware, a master quilter is at work, and she is formidable.
Do you see an elderly lady, or is she really something else?
Elements of leadership and comradeship are exposed along with winning and losing, remembering and forgetting, and being lost and hoping to be found.
Crucially, it’s about the weak and the strong, the good and the bad, a few rogues and a handful of spies, and a dubious security operation masterminded by a legend of global repute.
It’s about how gifted individuals step up to the plate when they are needed most and take control of unprecedented events.
Do you see a man wearing dark clothing, or something else?
This is the story of an attempt to bring about the downfall of an individual, an undetected and unreported murder, a false flag operation, a sting operation, blackmail, an attempt to destroy a nation’s status and capability, and an attack on the very fabric of an established peace-loving society.
It’s also a dual love story, of a kind, but for some, complete love is restricted by barriers that can never be breached.
Essentially, it’s a Paul Anthony action-packed thriller featuring Commander William Miller Boyd and his elite Special Crime Unit, and it’s based on unique, true, ‘real-life events’, that will shock you to the core.
Buckle up and hold tight. Who knows where you might end up?
Urquhart Castle,
Loch Ness, Scotland
