Absurd Petunias

This is a love story, a spy story and a story of resolution. It is appropriate that the novel opens with a quote from Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist who died in pursuit of press freedom. Fastidious old Etonian and newspaper office Lothario, Erik Jordan, is less than happy having a gauche Lancastrian, Celia Grey, foisted on him as a travelling companion.

Sent to the Greek island of Paxos to investigate the blowing up of a London based Russian oligarch’s luxury yacht, slowly Erik comes to realise there is a lot more to his ‘Bridget Jones’ companion. The two become entangled in the complex risky world of Balkan and Middle Eastern politics and espionage.

Far from leaving any personal threat behind in Greece, it follows them back to England. Unlike the Duke of Wellington’s retort of ‘publish and be damned’, for Jordan and Grey it becomes a question of ‘publish and possibly die’.