Reconciliation For The Dead

By Paul E. Hardisty

Vigilante justice-seeker Claymore Straker returns to South Africa to testify to Desmond Tutu’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, recounting the horrifying events that led to his exile, years earlier … The addictive, thought-provoking, searingly emotive next instalment in the critically acclaimed Claymore Straker series…

‘A gripping, page-turning thriller that is overflowing with substance to go along with Hardisty’s atmospheric prose and strong narrative style’ Craig Sisterson, Mystery Magazine

‘A solid, meaty thriller – Hardisty is a fine writer and Straker is a great lead character’ Lee Child

‘The author’s deep knowledge of the settings never slows down the non-stop action, with distant echoes of a more moral-minded Jack Reacher or Jason Bourne’ Maxim Jakubowski

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Fresh from events in Yemen and Cyprus, vigilante justice-seeker Claymore Straker returns to South Africa, seeking absolution for the sins of his past. Over four days, he testifies to Desmond Tutu’s newly established Truth and Reconciliation Commission, recounting the shattering events that led to his dishonourable discharge and exile, fifteen years earlier.

It was 1980. The height of the Cold War. Clay is a young paratrooper in the South African Army, fighting in Angola against the Communist insurgency that threatens to topple the White Apartheid regime. On a patrol deep inside Angola, Clay, and his best friend, Eben Barstow, find themselves enmeshed in a tangled conspiracy that threatens everything they have been taught to believe about war, and the sacrifices that they, and their brothers in arms, are expected to make.

Witness and unwitting accomplice to an act of shocking brutality, Clay changes allegiance and finds himself labelled a deserter and accused of high treason, setting him on a journey into the dark, twisted heart of institutionalised hatred, from which no one will emerge unscathed…

Exploring true events from one of the most hateful chapters in South African history, Reconciliation for the Dead is a shocking, explosive and gripping thriller from one finest writers in contemporary crime fiction.

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Praise for Paul E. Hardisty

'This is a remarkably well-written, sophisticated novel in which the people and places, as well as frequent scenes of violent action, all come alive on the page...’ Jessica Mann, Literary Review

‘A trenchant and engaging thriller that unravels this mysterious land in cool, precise sentences’ Stav Sherez, Catholic Herald

‘Laces the thrills and spills with enough moral indignation to give the book heft … excellent’ Jake Kerridge, Telegraph

‘A thriller of the highest quality, with the potential to one day stand in the company of such luminaries as Bond and Bourne’ Live Many Lives

‘A big, powerful, sophisticated and page-turning thriller – thought-provoking and prescient' Eve Seymour

'The writing at times is poetic, at other times filled with tension in a narrative complete with well delineated characters and several shocks. Highly Recommended’ Shots Mag

‘Gripping and exciting … the quality of Hardisty’s writing and the underlying truth of his plots sets this above many other thrillers’ West Australian

‘A stormer of a thriller, vividly written, utterly tropical, totally gripping’ Peter James

‘Searing … at times achieves the level of genuine poetry’ Publishers Weekly STARRED review

‘A page-turning adventure that grabs you from the first page and won’t let go’ Edward Wilson

• Language: English
• Publisher: ORENDA BOOKS
• Release date: Mar 22, 2017
• ISBN: 9781910633694

Paul E. Hardisty

Canadian Paul E Hardisty has spent 25 years working all over the world as an engineer, hydrologist and environmental scientist. He has roughnecked on oil rigs in Texas, explored for gold in the Arctic, mapped geology in Eastern Turkey (where he was befriended by PKK rebels), and rehabilitated water wells in the wilds of Africa. He was in Ethiopia in 1991 as the Mengistu regime fell, and was bumped from one of the last flights out of Addis Ababa by bureaucrats and their families fleeing the rebels. In 1993 he survived a bomb blast in a café in Sana’a. Paul is a university professor and CEO of the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS). The first four novels in his Claymore Straker series, The Abrupt Physics of Dying, The Evolution of Fear, Reconciliation for the Dead and Absolution all received great critical acclaim and The Abrupt Physics of Dying was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger and Telegraph Thriller of the Year. Paul is a sailor, a private pilot, keen outdoorsman, conservation volunteer, and lives in Western Australia.

Reviews for Reconciliation For The Dead

[atticusfinch1048 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Reconciliation for the Dead – Simply BrilliantThe final instalment of the Claymore Straker trilogy will leave you breathless, aghast and wishing that it were not a trilogy. Once again Paul E. Hardisty has researched and written a brilliant thriller and this time looking at a period in South Africa history that was considered hateful. This is also the height of the cold war, when the west took on the east in many different forums but not actually fighting each other. This is simply a brilliant thriller that is vividly written, absolutely gripping, topical and dripping with enough moral indignation not to be a turn off. Once again Hardisty delivers a meaty thriller, that is well written, sophisticated and the atmosphere is dripping off every page. This really is an engaging thriller that ebbs and flows through out that grabs you from the first page to the last. I will miss Claymore Straker!Over four days Claymore Straker is giving evidence to Archbishop Tutu’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission about events when he was a member of the South African Armed Forces. He goes back to 1980 when Clay was a young paratrooper, green behind the ears, fighting deep inside Angola against a communist insurgency in that country as it was seen to be threatening the Apartheid regime. While in Angola they discover acts of war crimes, that will later come back to bite them both, as they become deeply entangled in a secret conspiracy that will put both their lives and those around them in danger. We meet the darker side of Military History of Operation Coast and ‘Dr Death’ and the systematic killing of SWAPO prisoners, as well as the murder of anti-Apartheid activists.What we see is that naïve as Clay is, he is acting under orders and keeps wanting to know why they are doing things and what he sees. Even though he will end up in military hospital twice, he realises how brutal war is, but is beginning to question too much, and this will bring him to the attention of those is the South African secret police, whose crosshairs you do not want to be in.It is over the four days of evidence that Clay gives to the commission that we see the full back story of his life and how it affected what he did in the previous books in this trilogy. He is looking for an amnesty for what he did, but when the ‘official’ records do not tally with your account then he will always be fighting against the tide. Will he be believed? Will he get an amnesty? Sad to say goodbye to this great trilogy and the lead character Claymore Straker, who leaves us with the questions, is he a good man who did bad things, or a bad man who did good things? Paul E Hardisty has written a thriller that will be a gripping best seller.