Very different from his previous novels but this tightly written story with a PTSD suffering ex-soldier as the narrator is a gripping and rewarding read. Don’t be fooled by the quirky introspective start, it quickly accelerates to an edge of the seat contemporary thriller.
Traumatised by a tour of duty in Iraq, Richard Gaunt returns home to his girlfriend with very little of a plan in mind. Finding it difficult to settle into civilian life, he turns to drink and gambling - and is challenged to a bet he cannot resist. All he has to do is walk from London to Oxford in under twelve hours. But what starts as a harmless venture turns into something altogether different when Richard recklessly accepts an unusual request from a stranger ...
Paul Torday was our Guest Editor in April 2012 - click here - to see the books that inspired his writing.
Paul Torday was born in 1946 and read English Literature at Pembroke College, Oxford. He spent the next 30 years working in engineering and in industry, after which he scaled back his business responsibilities to fulfil a long-harboured ambition - to write. He burst on to the literary scene in 2006 with his first novel, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, an immediate bestseller that has been sold in 25 countries. Paul Torday died in 2013.
