Absolution

Set in 1997, Hardisty’s hard-hitting fourth thriller featuring South African vigilante Claymore Straker (after 2017’s Reconciliation for the Dead) opens with a letter to Clay from his star-crossed lover, journalist Lise Al Farouk (whose real name is Rania LaTour), lamenting the recent disappearance of her lawyer husband, Hamid Al Farouk, and their young son. Rania later becomes the prime suspect in their suspected murder. Rania travels to Egypt, Hamid’s country, to meet with a person who may have information about the fate of her husband and son. Meanwhile in Zanzibar, two men hunting Clay kill the woman he’s living with, Grace, and her young son; Clay plans to kill the man behind the attack. When a colleague of Clay tells him Rania needs his help, he sets out for Egypt. The suspense rises as the action switches back and forth from Rania’s perilous adventures as a single Muslim woman playing a dangerous game in Cairo to Straker’s difficult journey to come to her aid. Hardisty draws on real-life political turmoil in the region to tell a stirring, thought-provoking tale. [em]Agent: Broo Doherty, DHH Literary Agency (U.K.). (Sept.) [/em]