Alex Carr Knihy

Nicole has experienced enough danger and excitement to last her several lifetimes. But a six-year spell in Marseilles' toughest prison has cured her adrenaline habit. Now peace and quiet are what she craves. A farmhouse buried deep in the French Pyrenees, a garden to tend, and the occasional job whipping up a passport or a visa to pay for her simple lifestyle will do her fine. John Valsamis could have been any tourist, a solitary American needing directions in Nicole's empty corner of the world. But she knows he isn't. From his briefcase Valsamis pulls a Red Notice, a document reserved for people regarded by interpol as serious terrorist threats. On the document is a face familiar to Nicole - Rahim Ali. They had worked together and been lovers a decade earlier in Lisbon. Nicole does not believe Rahim has turned to terrorism, yet Valsamis confronts her with what looks like proof, along with intelligence of a planned major terrorist strike. Rahim was last spotted in Lisbon and Valsamis wants Nicole to track him down. Nicole cannot resist the pull, the need to prove Valsamis wrong about her former lover. Just a few days, she tells herself, a week at most. She'll find him and clear things up and be back to her old routine. But as the train slides south towards Lisbon's Santa Apolonia Station, she begins to realise how foolish her expectations had been ...

A riveting and intricate literary thriller from an author whose voice “gets your attention like a rifle shot . . . clean, direct, and a little dangerous.” Army Intelligence reservist Kat Caldwell teaches Arabic at a military college in Virginia when retired spy chief Dick Morrow tasks her with locating a CIA informant who has gone missing in Spain and may be heading to Morocco. The informant, Jamal, was a prisoner Kat interrogated at Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, and she must navigate a perilous path from Madrid’s red-light district to the slums of Casablanca to find him. Complications arise when a British Special Forces soldier is murdered just before he can testify about the death of a Bagram detainee, leading Kat to suspect a cover-up of U.S.-sanctioned torture. In a desperate move, Jamal contacts his former CIA handler, reigniting a deadly conflict between those who want to save him and those who wish him harm. The narrative unfolds with tension and complexity, exploring themes of loyalty, betrayal, and the dark realities of war. Praise for Alex Carr’s work highlights its atmospheric quality and the profound exploration of human experience amidst chaos.