Kingfisher

Description

A group of four students, all Ukrainian Jews, are fighting for recognition within the Soviet Union. They are tired of being treated as second-class citizens and are prepared to use violence if necessary. When one of their number is captured after shooting a policeman, they know time is running out. Their only hope is to hijack a plane, fly to the West and then on to Israel. One country after another refuses to let them land, untill the plane finally sets down in Britain, low on fuel. Charlie Webster, an Intelligence officer on the Soviet desk, is brought in to negotiate with the hijackers. But it is unclear whether they are political refugees or dangerous criminals. As the government wavers, the students become increasingly desperate and start to lose patience, and control...

Gerald Seymour was a reporter at ITN for 15 years. He covered events in Vietnam, Borneo, Aden, the Munich Olympics, Israel and Northern Ireland. He has been a full-time writer since 1978. Gerald Seymour exploded onto the literary scene in 1978 with the massive bestseller HARRY'S GAME. The first major thriller to tackle the modern troubles in Northern Ireland, it was described by Frederick Forsyth as 'like nothing else I have ever read' and it changed the landscape of the British thriller forever.

Brilliant... Palm-sweating tension. - New York Times Full of suspense... All too credible. - Daily Telegraph Unusually good... convincing and exciting... meticulously and skillfully sketched. - Financial Times The best novel yet about the chilling background to hijacking and society's answer to it. - The Times