Saturday Sneak-Peek: A Fatal Tide by Steve Sailah

I've recently started reading A Fatal Tide by Steve Sailah, due for release on the 1st August by Penguin Random House Australia.

Here's the blurb:

"A powerful novel set in Gallipoli, that's part war-story and part mystery. 'Amid Gallipoli's slaughter he hunted a murderer . . .'

It is 1915 and Thomas Clare rues the day he and his best friend Snow went to war to solve the murder of his father. 

The only clues – a hidden wartime document and the imprint of an army boot on the victim's face – have led the pair from the safety of Queensland to the blood-soaked hills of Gallipoli. 

Now not only are Thomas's enemies on every side – from the Turkish troops bearing down on the Anzac lines, to the cold-blooded killer in his own trench – but as far away as London and Berlin.

For, unbeknown to Thomas, the path to murder began thirteen years earlier in Africa with the execution of Breaker Morant - and a secret that could change the course of history . . ."

Steve is a former ABC foreign correspondent in New Delhi and Washington and the recipient of two prestigious Walkley Awards. He was a friend to several Gallipoli veterans, and returned to the battlefields with a number of them on the 75th anniversary of the first ANZAC landing.

His ABC documentary, Stories from Gallipoli, was republished in April 2013.

For me, it's already proving to be just a little emotional, especially in relation to his main character, Thomas' thoughts!

Here are excerpts from two of my favourite scenes so far:

"Thomas imagined a mother sewing, a father reading to a child in his lap, together around the hearth.  Once, he'd had something like that, when his ma was alive."

"The moon, pale and huge, had picked out the silvery bones of the big ghost gum." 

If you'd like to learn more about this novel, look out for my book review on the 22nd July which forms part of the Blog Tour being put together by Penguin Random House, with a review per day from the 21st July.

My thanks goes to the publicity team at Penguin Random House for inviting me to take part in this tour.