Deadly Protocol by Roger Corke
Dr Ronnie Ackerman wakes up in bed alone.
Her boss, Nobel Prize- winner Professor Hasely Stone, and the man she got drunk with the night before, is downstairs in the sauna, brutally murdered.
Who did this, and why?
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Stone had been working with total dedication on the ultimate cure for all cancers. Was he killed because he failed, or because he succeeded? Ronnie panics, clears the house of all traces of her overnight stay, and then sets out on a mission to find out.
My Review
This book moves at such a cracking pace that I read it in two sittings. Not a word, sentence or paragraph is wasted. No extra padding, no stretching it out, it just rockets to a satisfying finish.
I often say that a lot of novels are too long and could easily be cut to shed the ‘dead wood’ or too much description. They sometimes refer to it as ‘murdering your darlings’. With Deadly Protocol there is no dead wood, though plenty of murdering, literally! What we do have is politics, intrigue, medicine and the elusive cure for cancer. It’s fast, intelligent and exciting. What more could you want from a thriller?
Dr Veronica Ackerman known as ‘Ronnie’ (I was also known as Ronnie at school), is our fabulous main character. She’s smart, sassy and extremely clever. OK, so waking up in her boss’s bed after a drunken night of ‘passion’ wasn’t very smart, but apart from that one mistake her behaviour is exemplary. Fleeing the scene of a murder and trying to cover her tracks isn’t very smart either, but she panicked. Who wouldn’t have? Me for one I believe, but then I’ve never found myself in either situation. I’ve certainly never found anyone being barbecued over a sauna.
But that’s only the beginning. Professor Hasely Stone is just the first in a series of grisly murders, but why would anyone want to kill the very person who has found the cure for our deadliest illness? It just doesn’t make any sense.
Ronnie teams up with journalist Daniel Plowright, Professor Stone’s brother Leon, his PA Laura and Sister Augustine in a race across the world to discover the secrets behind the killings. It’s a clever game of cat and mouse with some very cruel and violent adversaries, which rattles along at breakneck speed that will leave you breathless and wanting more. And you will get it, as this is the first of a new series featuring Dr Ackerman.
Many thanks to Overview Media for inviting me to be part of the #DeadlyProtocol blog tour.
About the Author
TV journalist Roger Corke has spent more years that he cares to remember travelling to all parts of the world, making investigative documentaries for series like the BBC’s Panorama, Channel 4’s Dispatches and ITV’s World In Action and Tonight. It was whilst he was on a filming trip to America that he came up with the plot of Deadly Protocol.
“I was talking to a scientist working there who told me that they had made great strides in cancer research over the past few years.” says Roger. “I asked him whether that meant a cure for cancer might come soon. His answered floored me. He said ‘they may have found a cure for cancer but a lot of people would have a lot to lose if it ever saw the light of day’. Straight away, the plot for a thriller jumped out at me.”
Deadly Protocol can now be ordered, ahead of the official publication date of September 10.
You can order it from Amazon by clicking onto:
www.amazon.co.uk
This is the link for the Kindle edition on Amazon
You can also order it from the publishers, Diamond Books, at:
Diamond Books where you can also find out more about Roger.
