The Unforgiven by Jo Chumas

London, England – 1968

Twenty-six-year-old Rana Maddox, codenamed Domino, has caught the attention of British Intelligence. Her secret liaison with the United Kingdom’s War Minister, Robert MacDowell has made headline news and the Government has gone into crisis mode. Added to this, her brother, top nuclear physicist Alexandre Rigaud, has vanished in Istanbul, and the Government suspects foul play.

Agent Harry Dean has been told to follow Rana wherever she goes and report on her every move. Harry dismisses Rana as a flighty bottle blonde who’s all in a day’s work, but Oxford University-educated Rana knows exactly how to play agents like Harry Dean. Rana’s got one thing on her mind; revenge. Harry Dean is not going to get in her way.

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY called The Hidden a “sophisticated, first-rate mystery novel/political thriller……an excellent, well-written, and forceful work of fiction.”

THE UNFORGIVEN is available from Amazon and Amazon UK.

 *****

BOOKLIST said: “Egyptian-history buffs will love this complex story, set in 1940 Cairo, of love, betrayal, and political machinations. Fans of Elizabeth Peters and Wilbur Smith will find much to enjoy here.”

HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW said: “the strongest and most appealing elements of the novel are its richness of setting details and characterization. Everything about the way the characters think and how they relate to each other feels authentic. This is a stunning launch for a new fiction writer . . .”

 *****

Jo Chumas was born in England in the 1960s. When she was a small child she moved with her family to Brussels, Belgium and went to school there. She spent her childhood exploring Europe and North Africa with her parents when school holidays allowed, living between France, Switzerland and Brussels.

Her favourite thing to do was writing in her diary and making up stories about the strange characters she met on her travels. She studied French literature at university and fell hopelessly in love with the image of Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. Her ‘Existentialist’ phase lasted a long time. On leaving university she decided to travel the world and worked as a waitress, an accountant’s assistant (hilarious given that she hates maths) and a shop assistant before begging an editor friend to give her a job as a journalist. This led to a 22 year career as a journalist, commercial writer and PR account director specialising in international clients.

She wrote her first full-length novel when she was pregnant with her second son. In between collecting antiquarian books and first editions, learning new languages (she is rusty-fluent in French), reading everything she can get her hands on and writing novels, she dreams of being able to escape to her imagined mountain retreat and has already built the house of her dreams (inside her mind).