Ceremony of Innocence by Humphrey Hawksley

Mike McKillop was once a respected Hong Kong policeman. But now, living alone after his Chinese wife disappeared to the mainland with their two children, he is a pen-pusher, wallowing in alcoholic self-pity.

He thinks the glory days are long over.

But the past is about to catch up with him.

In Beijing for an international conference on corruption, McKillop receives a call from Clem Watkins, a CIA pal he hasn’t seen since the night his best friend was murdered years earlier.

Watkins warns him that there is something is happening at Heshui, a secret missile base near the Korean border.

McKillop is suddenly thrown into a vast conspiracy, involving the British, Chinese and US intelligence agencies. A deadly game of geo-political chess is about to unfold – in which no one is innocent.

And McKillop will have to learn how to be a policeman again – if he is to stay alive, and save the family he lost years ago.

CEREMONY OF INNOCENCE is available from Amazon.

*****

It is perfect for fans of Lee Child, Robert Ludlum, Frederick Forsyth and Robert Harris.

CEREMONY OF INNOCENCE has been brilliantly reviewed.

‘A gripping story, told with great imagination, but also with the knowledge and authority that one rarely sees in such thrillers.’ – Jon Swain, Sunday Times

‘Provocative and topical’ — The Daily Telegraph

‘Exotic settings…exciting thriller fare…a tense climax.’ – Phillip Knightley, The Mail-on-Sunday

‘A complex and convincing thriller ….an intriguing, if violent, vision of the near future.’ – The New Scientist

‘The scariest milieu since the Cold War washed out.’ – Kirkus Associates

‘Packed with authentic details… keeps suspense levels high.’ – Publisher’s Weekly

‘Humphrey Hawksley is one of only a handful of writers taking the thriller in important new directions.’ – Craig Thomas

*****

Humphrey Hawksley has been a BBC correspondent specialising in Asia for many years, and has reported from troublespots such as Kosovo and Iraq. In the 19980s he was in India, the Philippines and Sri Lanka – from where he was expelled while covering the Tamil war. From 1990 he was based in Hong Kong and in 1994 moved to Beijing to open the BBC’s first television bureau in China.