THE HIJACKING OF THE CRUISE SHIP OCEAN PEARL SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE WITHOUT THE SHEDDING OF BLOOD.

It should have been done without the death and destruction which they had experienced in Afghanistan, in East Timor, and in Iraq. But once begun, once the ship had been taken, death and destruction followed as it had done before. The ten former serving members of the Australian Army had all been bored, some in low-paying jobs, others unemployed. And so the subject had been tossed around until they had decided to proceed with Jazza's idle suggestion that they should hijack a cruise ship for money, for ransom, a decision which took them out into the waters of the South Pacific, to the hijacking, to the bloodshed, to the voyage from which there could be no return.

Another thriller from the prize-winning author of The Crying Stones.