Deadly Straits

Tom Dugan is a marine engineer who occasionally works for the intelligence services. When the War on Terror pulls him into trouble, he refuses to sit still. Wrongly linked to a hijacking, he is given a way out: help the CIA catch Alex Kairouz, a London shipowner and his closest friend. Dugan takes the assignment, though he is not convinced Alex is guilty. Working undercover beside Alex, he refuses to accept the agency's view, which sets him against his handlers and against a British agent he has become involved with.

The story then escalates. A tanker drifts near Singapore with its crew dead, and another blows up in Panama while Alex lies critically hurt after an apparent suicide attempt. Dugan is blamed for both attacks. Certain that worse is coming, he slips away and follows his final lead to Russia, where he is forced into service as an adviser to a Spetsnaz unit on a suicide mission. The novel moves from the streets of London to Singapore's dry docks, the decks of oil tankers, Panama, Langley in Virginia, and Tehran.

The author spent thirty years sailing, building and repairing ships around the world, and that experience shapes the shipboard detail throughout. The book suits readers who enjoy fast-moving espionage and terrorism thrillers with a strong maritime setting.