Author the Harry Baxter series

Over ten years ago I decided to write a 'Faction' book based on a real life event, The Buncefield Oil Terminal disaster of 11th December 2005.(See OVERT LIES).

You know the idea. Dramatised presentation of actual events placed in a fictional setting. I had never written such a book before, a challenging experience, but very satisfying in a number of ways.

Three years later I wrote the sequel, COVERT LIES, with the last of the trilogy, CYBER LIES, following two years later. The cast of characters continue throughout the books with action taking place in the UK, mainland Europe, Russia, China, the Middle East and Gulf regions.

In 2022 I finished the latest book in the quartet, TRUE LIES, with action taking place in the UK, Russia, USA, and the Caribbean. The challenge to international security agencies continues, but now some assistance is provided by cross-border national private agencies.

Intelligence agencies, and agents, including MI5, MI6, French DGSE, Israeli Mossad, and US CIA, feature consistently in the quartet, co-operating where possible, against known and unknown forces controlled by nation states or terrorist groups.

Harry Baxter, an MI6 officer, is a central character in all four books, with one prime objective, Defence of the Realm.

OVERT LIES

The first in a series of impossible-to-put-down thrillers that reads like a cross between current news headlines and international intelligence briefs.

--John A. Shaw

Former U.S. Deputy Under Secretary of Defense

The first in a trilogy about an actual event delivered in an exciting, readable, and suspenseful novel format. This new author has penned a well written story with all of the requisite twists, turns, and reverses employed by more well-known novelists like W. E. B. Griffin and Daniel Silvia. OVERT LIES employs excellent character development, deep knowledge of the petroleum industry, and an unusual understanding of the workings and interconnections of the British Government Ministries to tell a spell binding tale of international intrigue and terrorism.

—Robert Kenyon III Commander US Navy Rtd.

The pace of this well written book, OVERT LIES, conspired to make it a good experience. There was an authenticity in the descriptions of the underworld of plot and counter plot, in all its diverse settings, which added to the credibility of the story as it unfolded. The structure of the story as a series of disparate scenes showed ingenuity and skill. The very act, when reading, of moving from one geographical area to another, gives a fast-moving edge to the book. This is an enjoyable book which could easily be exploited in film.

—Dr. Anne Caldwell

JOHN HALFNIGHT