GIDEON'S BREATH

A novel that takes as its subject Israel’s domestic and International behaviour is rare in Western mainstream fiction. I can offer several explanations for this but I prefer instead to leave it to the reader to draw his or her own conclusions.

In tackling this sensitive subject the author discards the usual stereotypes and presents a story line built on a foundation of detailed research; what you read here may be fiction but the events will resonate with the many people who have been the victims of similar circumstances.

But what did I find find in this novel that prompts me to write this review? I found hidden in the shadows of intrigue, assassination and the lust for power more than one love story, tales of loyalty and betrayal, challenging social comment and a few surprises each described in a way that makes the characters come alive.

This story flows naturally from beginning to end and in my opinion the novel deserves to be successful, I look forward to the completed trilogy.

JDeW., Amsterdam, Dec. 2013

SYNOPSIS

Israel’s anxiety over Iran’s peaceful nuclear programme is the inspiration for this novel, the first in The Gideon Trilogy, and the author explores the consequences when rationality gives way to paranoia.

Impatient with the slow progress of their programme to assassinate Iran’s leading nuclear scientists Metsada, the black operations wing of Mossad, devise a plot to assassinate the Russian Energy Minister in an attempt to bring matters to a quick conclusion and halt the completion of the nuclear plant at Beshehr.

They coerce a disaffected Russian oligarch to help them gain access to the very heart of the Kremlin but his personal priority of destabilising the North Caucasus to bnig about the downfall of President Putin threatens to undermine the carefully prepared plot.

The weapon of choice is a derivative of the deadly poison Polonium 210, a by-product of the research being carried out by an unsuspecting ex-pat Swedish post graduate at Dimona, Israel's nuclear weapons facility.

From a violent start the story gathers a momentum that it maintains to the final, fatal climax in London. Just when you think the opera is over, the fat lady finds another song to sing