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Alexander McNabb

Goodreads Author

Website

http://www.alexandermcnabb.com

Twitter

alexandermcnabb

Genre

Mystery & Thrillers, Thriller, Romance

Member Since

November 2011

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/alexandermcnabb

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ALEXANDER MCNABB

Alexander McNabb has been working as a journalist, editor and magazine publisher in the Middle East for some 38 years. Today he consults on media, publishing and digital communications.

Alexander's first serious novel was the critically acclaimed Olives - A Violent Romance, a work exploring the attitudes, perceptions and conflicts of the Middle East, exposing a European sensibility to the multi-layered world of life on the borders of Palestine. Published in 2011, the book triggered widespread controversy, finding a receptive audience in the Middle East and beyond.

Olives was followed in 2012 by testosterone-soaked international spy thriller Beirut - An Explosive Thriller. His third Middle East-based novel, Shemlan - A Deadly T ALEXANDER MCNABB

Alexander McNabb has been working as a journalist, editor and magazine publisher in the Middle East for some 38 years. Today he consults on media, publishing and digital communications.

Alexander's first serious novel was the critically acclaimed Olives - A Violent Romance, a work exploring the attitudes, perceptions and conflicts of the Middle East, exposing a European sensibility to the multi-layered world of life on the borders of Palestine. Published in 2011, the book triggered widespread controversy, finding a receptive audience in the Middle East and beyond.

Olives was followed in 2012 by testosterone-soaked international spy thriller Beirut - An Explosive Thriller. His third Middle East-based novel, Shemlan - A Deadly Tragedy, about a man dying of cancer unearthing a deadly past, published in 2013. Together, the three form the 'Levant Cycle'.

A Decent Bomber, set in Ireland, published in 2015. It tells the story of a retired IRA bomb-maker forced to resume his old trade, pitching 'old terror' against 'new terror' in a battle of wits between an Irish farmer with a violent past and Somali extortionists with a questionable future.

His next novel, Birdkill, is a psychological thriller about a teacher who has lost her recent past to 'The Void', a terrible incident she can't recall and nobody seems to be in a hurry to tell her about. Her friend Mariam embarks on a race to uncover the truth before Robyn is driven over the edge into insanity.

His latest, The Dead Sea Hotel, is part spy thriller, part morality tale, part ghost story. Krikor Manoukian is the proprietor of the run-down Dead Sea Hotel. His beloved wife Lucine has passed away, his daughter Araksi is mooning around in love with an unsuitable boy and Manoukian is in debt up to his eyeballs. The last thing he needs is a dead Englishman in one of his rooms, but that's just what he's got. Little does Manoukian know it but he's got the Englishman's ghost to deal with, to boot.

You can find Alexander and his books at www.alexandermcnabb.com.
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Alexander McNabb’s books

Average rating: 4.01 · 662 ratings · 78 reviews · 19 distinct works • Similar authors

	Beirut: An Explosive Thriller 4.04 avg rating — 431 ratings — published 2012 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Olives: A Violent Romance 3.87 avg rating — 122 ratings — published 2011 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Shemlan: A Deadly Tragedy 4.16 avg rating — 43 ratings — published 2013 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Decent Bomber 4.55 avg rating — 22 ratings — published 2015 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Birdkill 4.30 avg rating — 20 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Space 2.88 avg rating — 17 ratings — published 2012 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Children Of The Seven Sands: The History of the United Arab Emirates 4.33 avg rating — 3 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Nanny's Magical Cheese Box really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Fake Plastic Souks: The Glory Years (2007-2009) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2013 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Dead Sea Hotel: A Moritat really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Alexander McNabb's Blog

The Triumph of the Call Centre

It is my lot to have to deal, because in some ways I live a complex life, with a number of banking institutions on a regular basis. In short, I have four banks. I know, I know, it's just worked out that way and there's nothing to be done about it. Two of them, UK based, are highly competent organisations that do the stuff you need, when you need it.

I was arguing this morning with a certain loc Read more of this blog post »

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Alexander is Currently Reading

Alexander McNabb is currently reading

Tai-Pan (Asian Saga, #2)

by James Clavell

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Alexander McNabb said: " I'm not sure why the publisher ordered these books chronologically as the Asian Saga as they weren't written in this sequence. I'd just finished re-reading Shogun, the first time I'd looked at the book since I was a teenager and I found myself a teen I'm not sure why the publisher ordered these books chronologically as the Asian Saga as they weren't written in this sequence. I'd just finished re-reading Shogun, the first time I'd looked at the book since I was a teenager and I found myself a teenager again, wide-eyed and transported to C17th Japan and its many wonders. You know that empty feeling you get when you finish a really good book? That sort of dull ache after you've spent days reading standing up, snatching precious minutes in each busy day to sneak a few more pages? Shogun was that good. It has its flaws, but that's just the sort of thing the Word Nazis worry about - POV skipping about in each scene like a manic leprechaun, long lumps of exposition that force the occasional skim. But the book's so very brilliant, the story so compelling, you gloss over these signs that it was written over 40 years ago, back when men were men and people didn't worry about stuff like POV.

And so I snapped up Tai-Pan, once again breaking my personal rule (don't pay more than 4.99 for an ebook) and ignoring the common sense that says £7.95 for an ebook is an insane price to charge. The paperback's £9, for pity's sake. But that ache, that leaden lump in the belly. I must have more! Gives it to me, my preciousss...

32 pages in, I returned Tai-Pan for a refund. I was never going to read further, the effort of the first 30 pages had exhausted me and my patience. I wanted to love this book, I loved it as a kid. I loved Shogun. Why, then, should this book be so awful? What went wrong?

It was like swimming through porridge. Awful dialogue, turgid prose, long, lingering descriptions of characters who deserve little more than a passing mention. It was a pub bore's tale replayed at 33rpm on a slow day in Slow City. Scottish characters say 'canna' a lot and we get told that they have a 'Scottish brogue', och aye. There's so much exposition it becomes painful to read, you can't get through it to find any morsel of interest. It's all tell, tell, tell. You're constantly pulled up and snatched away from the story by cludgy writing - at one stage, Glessing squints his eyes against the sharpening wind. What else was he going to squint? His thumb? It's painful.

Tai-Pan was actually written before Shogun, which sold something like 15 million copies. Clavell's novels have been loved by tens of millions of readers and their adaptations by hundreds of millions of viewers. There's something wrong with me, I know. It's my fault, not Clavell's. But this book was one I didn't toss aside lightly... ...more "

Jan 22, 2018 08:47PM · see review

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Alexander McNabb is now friends with Zarminae
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Quotes by Alexander McNabb (?)

“Good man, yeself.”
― Alexander McNabb, Beirut: An Explosive Thriller

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“glistening waves.”
― Alexander McNabb, Shemlan: A Deadly Tragedy

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Alexander’s Quotes

“There is a world of difference between a leadership that is based on love and respect, and one that is based on fear.”
― Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

tags: leadership, middle-east, respecting-others

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Alexander’s Friend Comments

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message 2: by Harlequin Books

Nov 30, 2011 09:45AM

Hello Alexander, it is a pleasure to meet you. If you ever have any questions about Harlequin or our books, please feel free to ask.

Kim S, Harlequin Books ambassador

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message 1: by Alexander

Nov 13, 2011 03:55AM

I've been putting it off until I was ready with Olives! :)

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