ScotKris was quick off the mark in reading this one and furnished us with a very positive review back in June. At the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival in July, I was talking to someone from the Netherlands who’d love to see Tom Bale published there. Having enjoyed the first ‘Tom Bale’ – Skin and Bones – I didn’t want to lose momentum with this author. Then, two fortuitous moments arrived: I received a lovely copy from the fabulous collectors’ choice book store, Goldsboro Books in London; and it was in my hands just as I felt the need for a good, quick read thriller. As soon as I started reading, the sense of ‘devour’ took over and Bale scooped me up again with his plotting and the urgency of his storytelling.
Terror’s Reach is a fictional island, at the nether-reaches of Chichester Harbour. Taking Sandbanks at Poole in Dorset as inspiration, Terror’s Reach is also a millionaires’ paradise, but with far fewer residents and housing, and also cut-off from the mainland with only a narrow bridge to link it. Terror’s Reach is home to two competing businessmen: Robert Felton and the Ukrainian, Valentin Nasenko. Our protagonist, Joe Clayton is employed in the Nasenko household as a bodyguard to Nasenko’s wife, Cassie and her children.
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