Kharkiv, Ukraine, 2019: Ongoing clashes between Ukrainian nationalists and pro-Russian activists make this city a deadly destination.
However, Matt Latham - Australian foreign correspondent and reluctant spy for ASIS (Australia's secret service) - isn't too picky with the work he accepts, as long as the money is right. When offered a lucrative assignment to interview a reclusive Russian billionaire in Kharkiv, he jumps at the chance. But an explosion at the club where they were to meet leaves Matt hospitalised and his interpreter, Katya Fomina, dead.
Was it just another random act of violence in this strife-torn region?
Released from hospital, Latham travels to Katya's Ukrainian village to meet her parents and pay his last respects. There, he learns of his interpreter's fruitless search for her missing younger sister, Nadiya, and discovers that Katya led a double life.
Picking up the threads of Katya's investigation, Latham becomes a man on a mission. And his search for Nadiya will propel him across Europe and ever deeper into a murky world of double agents, illegal arms shipments, drug running and human trafficking.
Shadow Lives tells a tale of loss, betrayal, and revenge.Of a flawed man's attempt to help a broken family and, in the process, set a small corner of the world to rights ... Will it also help him break free of the shadows shrouding his own life?
PRAISE FOR SHADOW LIVES:
'The most nail-biting, gut-wrenching, thought-provoking rollercoaster thrill ride of a book I've read in years' BRAM PRESSER
'A prescient thriller giving us the hero we need for our troubled times' JAMES PHELAN
'moves at breakneck speed from the first page to its stunning conclusion ... I couldn't put it down' MARK SMITH
'deeply researched and thrilling' BEN HOBSON Neil A White was born in Melbourne and educated in his native Australia and the United States. He is the author of the novels Closure, Turn a Blind Eye, Something for Bebe and Shadow Lives, the first in the Matt Latham series. He is also the creator of the 'Songs Reimagined' series - Minds Went Walking: Paul Kelly's Songs Reimagined and Into Your Arms: Nick Cave's Songs Reimagined. He and his wife currently reside in Dallas, Texas. One sister murdered. The other missing. Can a flawed man find the answers buried within a web of intrigue? Matt Latham, a journalist and reluctant spy for ASIS (Australia's secret service), is propelled across Europe on a quest to find his interpreter's killer and uncover the fate of her missing sister. His investigation takes him ever deeper into a shadowy world of double agents, illegal arms shipments, drug-running, and human trafficking. Shadow Lives tells a gripping tale of loss, betrayal, and revenge. The quality of the writing, fast-paced narrative and espionage/thriller positioning within the crime genre is reminiscent of John le Carré.
