I'm very excited to be part of the blog tour today for The Beijing Conspiracy by Shamini Flint. I have an extract to share with you and if you like the sound of that, you can click here to order your copy now. Don't forget to check out the other stops on the tour for more exclusive content and reviews.
Here's what it's all about...
"I need your support. There is no one else I can trust. Please help her. Please help our daughter." When ex-Marine Jack Ford receives a letter containing news of a daughter he never knew he had, he feels compelled to return to China, a country he hasn't visited since 1989 when, as a young American spy, he fell in love with a beautiful student activist and found himself caught up in the horrors of the Tiananmen Square massacre. But why has Xia got in touch now, after a thirty-year silence? On arrival in Beijing, Jack finds himself accidentally in possession of an explosive piece of information both the Chinese and American governments are desperate to get their hands on. Alone in a strange city, suspected of being a traitor by his own side, not knowing whom to trust, Jack is faced with an impossible dilemma: should he save his new-found daughter or prevent a new world war from breaking out?
And here's that excerpt for you...
The following day, Vice Premier Liu Qi sat in his favourite chair in his Spartan living room. He rocked gently back and forth, his eyes on the dead man on the floor. The small concentration of bullet holes in the chest of the body looked like a bouquet of roses, little bursts of red.
General Zhang marched in. Liu Qi had called him first. The police would have their moment, grovelling and scraping and assuring him, a senior member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo, that no blame could possibly attach to him for shooting a man dead in his living room. But his discussions with Zhang would determine how events in the real world, the world of high stakes and high politics, played out.
‘What the fuck happened here?’
‘I shot him,’ said Liu Qi.
‘He stole the memo?’
‘Yes.’
Zhang prodded the body with the toe of his boot. ‘Did you question him?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well?’ The impatience, always so close to the surface in the powerful, barrel-chested general, was already spewing like an active volcano.
A shadow passed across Liu Qi’s face. ‘It seems that my aide was an American spy. Codename EMPEROR.’
Zhang rose to his feet and, without warning, rained kicks on the body on the floor. Bones cracked like distant gunshots, flesh split. The sudden surge of rage mottled Zhang’s face; his cheeks and forehead turned red but the skin around his eyes and nostrils was bloodless.
‘What did you say he called himself? EMPEROR?’ he asked.
Liu Qi nodded.
‘Well, EMPEROR is done leaking secrets to anyone.’
About the Author
Shamini Flint was born and brought up in Malaysia. Having studied law at Cambridge University, she travelled extensively throughout Asia for her work as a corporate lawyer, before giving it up to become a writer, part-time lecturer and environmental activist. Shamini now lives in Singapore with her husband and two children. She is the author of the highly acclaimed Inspector Singh mystery series.
Twitter Handles
@ShaminiFlint
@SevernHouse
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