When a private security agency run by and for women is asked by the South African Secret Service to protect two high-flung Chinese businessmen, the lid is rapidly blown off a whole nest of vipers. The activities of the Chinese spark a vicious gang war among the Untouchables, the Cape gang lords who have until now controlled the rewarding abalone poaching business the Chinese are now attempting to takeover with official connivance. Krista Bishop, who has long left the violence of the streets behind her, is now torn behind the request to fulfill her job for her employers and protect the vulnerable daughter of gang lord Titus Anders. With deliberate echoes of Shakespeare's bloody TITUS ANDRONICUS, this is a savage slice of South African thriller of the darkest hue and confirms Nicol as the sole heir to that particular, invidious kingdom. ~ Maxim Jakubowski
Krista Bishop runs a security agency. For women only. Until she gets a call she can’t refuse from the Secret Service, to guard two high profile Chinese businessmen.
What Krista isn’t told is the Chinese are mopping up the richly rewarding abalone poaching business. They want it all. From shore to plate. A takeover that will kick three Cape Town ganglords – known as the Untouchables – out of business and destroy their luxury lifestyles.
Abalone means power, money, drugs, guns. No longer untouchable, gang boss Titus Anders fears for the life of his daughter and calls in Krista Bishop to protect her from the madness as the gang war destroys his world.
Krista’s the best. She’s young, tough and a long way from the violence of the streets. Or is she?
The war is everywhere. Right in her own backyard. And there is a secret agent waiting for her, with a gun in his hand…
"Some of the best hard-boiled crime fiction you could read . . . everything about [Nicol’s] writing is sure-footed" - The Sunday Times
"Nicol is a superb storyteller, with vibrant characters and stunningly vivid dialogue." - The Times
"Read Mike Nicol now, before everyone else starts telling you how wonderful he is" - John Connolly
"The king of South African crime writers" - Mariella Frostrup on BBC Radio 4's Open Book
Author
About Mike Nicol
Mike Nicol was born in Cape Town, where he still lives. The Revenge Trilogy is his first foray into crime fiction, and has met with widespread acclaim.
