Book review: A Single Source by Peter Hanington

A Single Source is the second in the series featuring William Carver, a veteran BBC foreign correspondent, and his tenacious young producer, Patrick. They are in Cairo, covering the Arab Spring and the demonstrations in Tahrir Square.

Back in London, a former journalist and colleague of Carver is working in the Ministry of Defence putting a spin on some very unappealing corporate activities.

Meanwhile two youths in Eritrea are about to attempt to be smuggled into Europe as refugees.

Carver and Patrick form contacts with two young women. Zahra is working at the hotel where Carver is staying and acting as a fixer and translator, when she can avoid the watchful eye of the manager. Her friend Nawal is an activist . They bring him some explosive information. Carver wants to run the story but he needs to back it up and is aware his investigation can put Nawal in ever deeper danger.

I really enjoyed A Single Source, particularly when it focused on the characters in Egypt and Eritrea. The journalist characters are all convincing and real, unsurprising as the author is a BBC journalist himself, although it might have been interesting if one or two of them had gone against type.

The plot kept me guessing (I thought I had cleverly worked out the direction of one thread early on but was pleased to have been outwitted). I liked the way the three disparate stories finally came together.

This is a great political thriller which combines big events and the human stories behind them. It is both thoughtful and pacy in demonstrating how injustice in the region has roots worldwide.

I received a copy of A Single Source from the publisher via Netgalley.
View A Single Source on Goodreads

Enjoyed this? My novel Brand New Friend  features a former foreign correspondent in Cairo caught up in a crime closer to home.

It was the 80s. Parties, protests, benefit gigs. It wasn’t meant to end in murder.

BBC foreign correspondent Paolo Bennett is deskbound in London after his family had to leave their beloved Cairo.

Then Paolo learns that Mark, a friend and fellow activist from his student days, was actually an undercover cop — and his handler has been murdered.

Paolo grabs the opportunity to get out and investigate, but Mark isn’t making it easy, disappearing just as everyone wants answers. And while Paolo is reminiscing about cheap beer and great bands, his old friends remember commitment, conspiracy and a death on campus that was never explained.

Is one of them a killer? As Paolo’s past and present lives collide, what he learns changes everything he thought he knew about his friends – and himself.

Buy Brand New Friend from Amazon