LoveReading Says
March 2010 Book of the Month.
Paul Tallis returns this time to bring back an old friend it is feared has turned rogue agent. However, things are never that straight forward for Tallis and the question of whether to trust his bosses, his old friend or his instincts leads to an action packed thriller to keep you on the edge of your seat.
Paul Tallis also features in a number of other thrillers by E V Seymour:
The Last Exile
Land of Ghosts
The Mephisto Threat
Click here to view the above titles together
The following title is only available as a Kindle download. Click here for more details
Resolution to Kill
LoveReading
Find This Book In
Land of Ghosts Synopsis
Seconded from MI5 to the SIS, Tallis must take on his most explosive mission yet. A series of high profile killings has made the Russian government increasingly authoritarian. And for Paul Tallis, former elite firearms officer and currently working off the books for MI5, the crumbling international situation is about to become very personal. Unknown to Tallis, his old schoolfriend, Rufus Graham, has been working deep undercover for the Secret Intelligence Service in the Chechen mountains. When it's feared that Graham has turned rogue agent, Tallis is tasked with finding his old friend and bringing him back home. But for the first time in his life, Tallis is forced to question not only the legitimacy of his orders, but whose side he wants to take.
About This Edition
ISBN: |
9780778303435 |
Publication date: |
18th June 2010 |
Author: |
E V Seymour |
Publisher: |
Mira Books an imprint of Harlequin Mills & Boon |
Format: |
Paperback |
Primary Genre |
Thriller and Suspense
|
Other Genres: |
|
Recommendations: |
|
About E V Seymour
E.V. Seymour was born in West Bromwich in the West Midlands
and spent much of her early years in the surrounding area. Through an
unhappy chain of events, she was sent away to school in Malvern then
Cheltenham, later fleeing institutional life for the bright lights of
the Edinburgh Festival. Captivated by the city, she decided to stay –
home being a grotty bed-sit next to a football ground – and paid the
rent by selling stationery supplies.
After a move to London, she
began an arts degree, which she dropped out of to join a public
relations consultancy – home moving up several gears to a flat in
Kensington, shared with a couple of old school-friends. During her P.R.
career, she was involved in a number of accounts, mainly medical and
nutritional, and included the Woman’s Own Children of Courage awards,
which she ran for two years.
After another move to a P.R.
consultancy in Birmingham, she married and moved to South Devon. Five
children later, she began writing in her spare time. Previous writing
credits include a number of short stories broadcast on BBC Radio Devon,
and articles in Devon Today magazine. She has since bent the ears of a
number of police officers in Devon, West Mercia and West Midlands,
including Scenes of Crime and firearms, in a ruthless bid to make her
writing career more enduring than previous attempts.
Below is a Q&A with this author.
How would you describe your novel ‘The Last Exile’?
It’s
easier to describe what ‘The Last Exile’ isn’t! The novel is broader
than a straight crime thriller and, although it combines typical
elements of the spy story, it doesn’t really fall into that genre
either. Cutting to the chase, I’d say it’s a distinctly British thriller
with political overtones. It’s also very character driven. Our main man
is Paul Tallis, former soldier and ex-firearms officer turned
off-the-books spook.
What gave you the inspiration for the story?
Tragically,
the inspiration for the story resulted from the shooting of Jean
Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Tube station in July 2005.
Following
the incident, there was a radio discussion and phone-in programme
examining the actions of the firearms officers involved. Criticism was
strong and in some cases highly emotive. The officers were variously
accused of being ‘cowboys’ and ‘gunslingers,’ and this got me thinking.
What must it feel like to be in their shoes?
While the killing
of an innocent man was a tragedy, I wondered whether the blame was being
aimed at the wrong people. It seemed to me that the firearms officers
were following orders based on what they considered to be credible
intelligence. Catapulted into a situation where they believed their
target was a terrorist, the threat of losing their lives in a possible
retaliatory response was all too real. With that as my starting point,
the rest of the story developed reasonably easily.
Who do you base your characters on?
I’m
not sure I base my characters on anyone. They’re a composite of people
I’ve come across, but I also rely heavily on imagination. Tallis, my
main protagonist, is less easy to explain. As a woman writing as a man, I
can hardly say that he’s my alter ego! His physical appearance, his
values, and beliefs probably come close to what I find most desirable in
a bloke. Having said that, I recognise that some of his attributes are
mine, which is probably a bit odd! Safe to say, if Tallis were to walk
into the room, I’d recognise him immediately.
From where do you get your ideas?
I’m
a bit of a news junkie and my ideas are ripped straight from the
headlines – hence the focus on immigration in ‘The Last Exile.’ But I
also think you require an X-factor element, a way of stamping that idea
as your own and, therefore, making it unique. To try and do this, it
definitely helps to approach an existing idea or story from an oblique
angle. I always go back to the classic ‘What if?’
More About E V Seymour