Description
Journalist Hope Barber disappears two weeks after returning to New Zealand from a long assignment in Pakistan, where she visited shelters for so called ‘dishonour’ women, who had escaped death at the hands of their families. She had concentrated to the north-western corner of Pakistan where the Teleban has adherants on both sides of the border. Hope’s apartment door is found unlocked and her bag and phone are still inside. The police are tight-lipped about their reluctance to act, and Hunter Grant and Dao agree to help Hope’s brother Noah find her. Details about Hope’s time in Pakistan gradually emerge but only raise more questions.
Was Hope under surveillance? Was she linked to terrorists? And who is the man Hope called `my stalker’? And who was the man with the wheelie-bin?
Hunter, who in The Chinese Proverb used his front-line Army experience to save Dao, finds himself in unknown territory. When a key person from Dao’s past life in captivity turns up, things reach crisis point and Hunter once again takes matters of justice and retribution into his own hands.
Tina –
Quotes from a Radio NZ review by Louise O’Brien, (NZ Review of Books) on Nine to Noon:
This book comes highly recommended. It has a fast plot with a wide cast of fully developed characters. The writing is very polished – the prose has an interesting rythm, an inexorable marching beats that takes you on and on. Very cinematic with global appeal.
Tina –
Review on Goodreads by Trish McCormack, author:
This is one of those stories that gets under the skin and it’s down to a few things but mainly the rich characters. Hope, Hunter and Dao are all drawn with depth and compassion so we care about what happens to them. And as for the story- it’s accomplished and a page turner but it also makes you think about things in a different way. The consequences of a good deed, a new twist on the dangers of surveillance for a start. I liked the way this novel was structured with Hope’s stories and the present tense narrative work well. Love Scruff. And I’ll never look at a wheely bin in the same way again!