Reconstruction

`Masterful . . . superior entertainment that makes most other novels of suspense appear dull and slow-witted by comparison` Publishers Weekly What should have been a simple pick-up turns into a day-long nightmare for Bad Sam Chapman. When an operational catastrophe puts a gun in the hands of a young man, who then breaks into South Oxford Nursery School and takes a group of hostages, teacher Louise Kennedy fears the worst. But Jaime Segura isn`t there on a homicidal mission, and he`s just as scared as those whose lives he holds as collateral. As an armed police presence builds outside the school`s gates, Bad Sam Chapman - head of the intelligence service`s internal security force, the Dogs - battles the clock to find out what Jaime is after. But the only person Jaime will talk to is Ben Whistler, an MI6 accountant who worked with Jaime`s lover, Miro. Miro`s gone missing, along with a quarter of a billion pounds allotted for reconstruction work in Iraq. Jaime refuses to believe that Miro is a thief - though he`s always had his secrets. But then, so does Louise, so do the other hostages - and so do some people on the outside, who`d much rather Jaime was silenced.