Paul Daly
Paul Daly teaches at the London School of Journalism. He is a thriller writer in the tradition of Le Carre and Greene at the upmarket end of the thriller market, where plots are filled with menace, action, violence and mystery but not at the expense of perceptive and intelligent observation, characterisation and story-telling.
His first novel PROTOCOL tells the story of Simon Hardway, a scientist whose youthful idealism has been crushed by his involvement in a shameful and horrific scandal within the giant pharmaceutical corporation, BioShield, to which he has given his life. A shell of his former self, he now drifts through a soulless job and an empty life until an entirely unexpected sequence of events catapults him into an international conspiracy and the middle of a war zone in the Colombian jungle, with shadowy opponents ranged on all sides and no way of knowing if his allies are really his enemies. He struggles simply to stay alive as the CIA, the DEA, the Colombian army and brutal rebel forces clash in one of the most dangerous corners of the world. And the companions he is forced to depend on clearly have agendas of their own, with betrayal and revenge never far away. But what is the real reason for his presence in this most unlikely setting? And what is the real prize? Drugs? Money? Power? Or something even darker? In his desperation to survive, Simon finds he still has the determination to do the right thing, and to find again the true value of life and love.
Tightly plotted, deftly characterised, explosively written, astonishingly authentic, PROTOCOL is a mature and confident debut from a writer with a great future.
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