One day in 2010  I was walking along the south bank of the Seine near the center of Paris when a white van suddenly pulled up next to me, startling me with its unexpected approach.

Four builders jumped out, fully equipped with drills and hammers and such, intent on their mission. After my heart rate settled, as I wondered further along that lovely walk through Paris, I considered how different my walk might have been had the occupants of that white van been motivated by a more sinister purpose;  I began imagining the many possibilities arising from that.

I had never written a novel. This seemed like my opportunity.

Very soon after the conclusion of that splendid Seine walk, I drafted a story about a former military man with special skills, between jobs. I imagined this highly skilled character was at a difficult time in his personal life, being persuaded by enormous reward to mastermind a business venture in Paris. An event where the miscreants deliver their deadly cargo from a White van to the very heart of Paris, arriving with total surprise, much as I had experienced with that white van. They would arrive in a cross imagery. Four points. North, south, east, west. The story wrote itself in a very short time, maybe three months of six hour days. Dan Blake soon became quite real to me. A character who has gone through so much in his life to find that its all comes down to sheer blind luck when ethical considerations underpin your every decision.

In the book Dan Blake meets Senator Bob Barret. One of the richest men in the world. In their conversation Senator Barret tells Blake about wealth:

“There are only two classes in the world: those who profit from violence, and those who are victimized by violence. Class war is not about rich or poor, black or white, or man versus woman. It is one class using force and deceit to control a majority supporting their own victimization under the guise of the pursuit of freedom.

We who profit by war rule those who bend to our will. Those meek inheritors born for no higher purpose than to meekly inherit nothing. Our controlling interest in this relationship is now so entrenched that we maintain our position without even needing to get our hands dirty. Our power lies in controlling information in all its shapes and sizes. Information is the integral component of the class war and of my business – creating content and distributing it, by whatever means available: information and misinformation.

The only surprise in this balancing the status quo is how very easy it is for a tiny handful of people to own and control everything while the huge majority make do without life choices. Napoleon knew the formula when he said ‘Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.’ All the great empire builders have relied on this understanding. Even the atheist leaders like Stalin and Mao, who killed off their intelligentsia rather than allow free thought to prosper, understood this same obeisance. All so they could enjoy drinking from the same cup. Power. Its what makes the world go round and it only makes the world go round when it’s concentrated in the hands of the few. Always been that way. Action and reaction.
It takes a lot of poor people to make one billionaire.”

BOB BARRAT. (Sen.)

So here it is  on Kindle or in glorious Paperback. 

Or on Audible, narrated by Andrew Brel