The Gibraltarian

IN THIS SEQUEL to Christopher Scott’s thriller Choke Point (CreateSpace 2009), David Lomax has returned from his deadly adventure in Spain and Gibraltar and is trying – unsuccessfully – to pick up the threads of his disorganized life, including his mercurial girlfriend Anna. Simon Upton, one of his few friends in Brighton, invites him for a little sailing in his old wooden boat the Sally Sweeting. This turns out to be a hazardous and scary night-time crossing of the English Channel, the busiest waterway in the world. During the voyage he meets the only other person aboard – ‘Mac’, the extraordinary and strange 12-year-old girl, a near-genius, ward of Simon. Back in England, he hears that his old Portobello Road companion, Goldie has died – and to his astonishment has named him sole beneficiary of what turns out to be a considerable fortune. Flush with money as a result, he plans to take Anna, Mac and Simon on a no-expense-spared trip to Paris, with the stated purpose of allowing Anna to guide the unsophisticated Mac in buying some clothes. And would Paris work its magic on Anna, David wonders hopefully. Before leaving, he receives a message from his former adversary in Gibraltar, Emilio Busutil, who is renewing his interest in having David join his worldwide organization. The Gibraltarian and David meet again at the start of a month-long cruise in the Mediterranean on board Busutil’s luxurious motor-yacht the Lord Nelson. David watches Busutil steadily assemble a team to pursue his next international target, centered on the tiny island of Chronos in the Tyrrhenian Sea north of Sicily. Disaster strikes on Christmas Day. Neither David nor his companions on Busutil’s team – Mac, Simon, and Laura (last met in Choke Point at the finca La Torre) and forty very strange strangers – could foresee what the future held for them when the trash stopped flowing to Chronos.