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A Kidnap-and-Ransom Thriller (A Thea Paris Novel)
by K.J. Howe
The electrifying sequel to The Freedom Broker, featuring Thea Paris, a kidnap and ransom specialist.
International kidnap expert Thea Paris is escorting two former child soldiers on a plane from an orphanage in Kanzi, Africa, to adoptive parents in London when the Boeing Business Jet is hijacked and forced to land on a deserted airstrip in the Libyan desert.
On the ground, Thea comes face-to-face with a former nemesis, a Sicilian don who wants something, or someone, on that plane. Her old foe imprisons her in the hangar and takes to the air with the boys and the passengers still aboard, mysteriously demanding that Thea use the resources of Quantum International to hijack a truckload of Syrian refugees bound for Budapest. He makes it clear he will return the passengers only when the truck and its contents are in his possession.
Thea, Rif, and the Quantum team must race against the clock to discover the don's true motives before any harm comes to the two boys and their fellow passengers. Revealing a deadly conspiracy that connects the dark postwar legacy of World War II to the present, this case will bring all parties to an explosive conclusion that will decide the fate of millions across Europe and the Middle East.
"Starred Review. Rip-roaring...The enthralling plot moves across Europe with lightning speed...In-depth character studies match the high tension. With this nail-biter, Howe seals her place as a first-class purveyor of adventure stories." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Howe, executive director of ThrillerFest, is a master storyteller, and even though this is her second novel, it demonstrates the talent of someone who has been crafting thrillers for decades." - Library Journal
"Howe is so committed to her story and skillful in its execution that the suspense scenes, especially when Paris' group attempts to close in on the terrorists amid a crowd of tourists, are difficult to turn away from. And when Paris has to single-handedly battle a hangarful of thugs, the action is so exhilarating that we wish the scene would go on longer. For action-hungry readers, this one's a must!" - Booklist
"Hang on tight: Thea Paris is back in a new nailbiting, high-stakes adventure. Skyjack is exciting, assured, and a hell of a great ride. Buckle up." - >Meg Gardiner, author of Into the Black Nowhere
"Few people combine breakneck action with utterly compelling characters as brilliantly as K.J. Howe." - Peter James, internationally bestselling author of Need You Dead
"K.J. Howe's Skyjack upends the thriller world with Thea Paris, a fresh, engaging, smart, compassionate, deadly heroine who first appeared in The Freedom Broker and seems destined for many more compelling novels to come." - David Morrell, New York Times bestselling author of Murder as a Fine Art
"Thea Paris is the female James Bond. K.J. Howe is today's hottest author. Compelling and crafty, Skyjack is brilliantly plotted to the point where you feel the turbulence as you turn the pages." - A.J. Tata, bestselling author of Direct Fire
"Fans of Jack Clancy and Brad Thor can rejoice: there is a new literary giant in the land! K.J. Howe is the real deal. Deeply experienced and informed in her own right, she has applied her knowledge, her personal experiences, and her amazing writing skills to give us Skyjack, a book filled with all the action and suspense that any reader could desire! From a US Air Force B-47 in the 1950s to a gunfight in the Hagia Sophia, Howe writes with authority and detail that is intensely satisfying to any reader." - Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, author of On Killing, On Combat, and Assassination Generation
"Another sensational Thea Paris adventure...starts at 600 mph (literally) and never slows down. Full of dense, twisty, informed plotting and real, compelling characters. Howe is a keeper!" - Lee Child, #1 internationally bestselling author of the Jack Reacher Series
"Thea Paris kicks some serious ass in this action-packed thrill ride that grabs the reader from the first exciting page and doesn't let go until the last. K.J. Howe is at the top of the K&R game." - Karin Slaughter, internationally bestselling author of The Good Daughter
This information about Skyjack was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
K.J. Howe is the executive director of ThrillerFest, the annual conference of International Thriller Writers. A three-time Daphne du Maurier Award winner, she completed her MA in Writing Popular Fiction at Seton Hill University. She is an avid traveler who has raced camels in Jordan, surfed in Hawaii, and dove with the great whites in South Africa. She became fascinated by the kidnap and ransom (K&R) world after meeting Peter Moore, a British computer consultant who became the longest-held hostage in Iraq and the only person to survive of the five men who were taken that day. She is the author of The Freedom Broker
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