Beirut: An Explosive Thriller

Beirut - An Explosive Thriller
Michel Freij is a powerful man. But he wants more. Two hundred kilotons more.

Michel Freij is poised to become the next president of Lebanon. The billionaire businessman’s calls for a new, strong regional role for the country take on a sinister note when European intelligence reveals Freij has bought two ageing Soviet nuclear warheads from a German arms dealer.

Maverick British intelligence officer Gerald Lynch has to find the warheads, believed to be on board super-yacht the Arabian Princess, before they can reach Lebanon. Joined by Nathalie Durand, the leader of a French online intelligence team, Lynch is pitched into a deadly clash with Freij and his violent militia as he pursues the Arabian Princess across the Mediterranean.

Beirut - An Explosive Thriller sweeps through Lebanon, Hamburg, Prague, Malta, Albania and the Greek Islands on its journey to a devastating climax.

Alexander McNabb has been working in, living in and travelling around the Middle East for over 25 years. Formerly a journalist, editor and magazine publisher, today he spends his time advising companies on their communications strategies, with a particular focus on digital and online communications. Alexander is a frequent conference speaker, chair and moderator, particularly on issues around online and digital communications. He co-hosts a weekly radio show and is a frequent commentator on developments in the technology and online spheres. When he’s not writing books, he’s posting half-thoughts and snippets on his blog, Fake Plastic Souks, which he started in 2007 during the Arab Media Forum. The title refers to the ’new’ souks of Dubai, so much more convenient and classy than the real ones. Alexander’s first attempt at writing a book was in 2002, when he sat down to write high-tech comedy thriller Space. Although Space was to land on the ’Editor’s Desk’ at Harper Collins peer review website Authonomy in October 2007, the book was not seen as a commercial proposition by literary agents and publishers, many of whom took the trouble to point out that humour doesn’t sell. Alexander rolled up his sleeves and wrote the critically acclaimed novel Olives - A Violent Romance, a serious work that explores the attitudes, perceptions and conflicts of the Middle East, exposing a European sensibility to the strange and multi-layered world of life on the borders of Palestine. This was followed by Beirut - An Explosive Thriller, published in October 2012. He is currently working on a third Middle East based novel, Shemlan - A Deadly Tragedy. Although the three ’Levant Cycle’ books are by no means a trilogy, they follow a roughly contiguous timeline and share many of the same characters.