Once again, many thanks for the tour invite @Tr4cyF3nt0n to join these amazing bloggers on #TheSiege tour. For more bookish chat, please keep scrolling…

The Blurb

Nine hostages. Ten hours. One chance to save them all.

Lee James Connor has found his purpose in life: to follow the teachings of far-right extremist leader, Nicholas Farmer. So when his idol is jailed, he comes up with the perfect plan: take a local immigrant support group hostage until Farmer is released.

Grace Wheatley is no stranger to loneliness having weathered the passing of her husband, whilst being left to raise her son alone. The local support group is her only source of comfort. Until the day Lee James Connor walks in and threatens the existence of everything she’s ever known. 

Superintendent Alex Lewis may be one of the most experienced hostage negotiators on the force, but there’s no such thing as a perfect record. Still haunted by his last case, can he connect with Connor – and save his nine hostages – before it’s too late?

My thoughts

‘The Siege’ by John Sutherland doesn’t take long to snare you. It’s a tense, driven novel of a volatile hostage situation with depth. By depth, I mean this is a story driven by its characters.

Three central players drive this stomach clenching drama as Lee, a young man gripped by grief, pulled into an online existence and detached from reality is radicalised. He sets himself on an extreme pathway, fuelled by discord into creating and controlling a hostage situation. It’s in this tense setting that he meets Grace and Alex.

Grace is a young widow, burdened by grief and loneliness; she is our warrior within and the events of the novel create a phoenix in her, to rise up against her situation and reach deep inside for that human connection in a situation of fear and threat.

Alex is burdened by a past failed hostage negotiation and has his own demons to battle whilst maneuvering the opportunity to connect and save those now under threat.

Sutherland writes an absorbing and adrenaline inducing read perfect for fans of tense thrillers. It’s dark at times, but it’s also emotional, thoughtful and moves along at a dynamic pace. I’d happily recommend ‘The Siege’.

The Author

John Sutherland is a father of three who lives with his wife and children in south London. For more than twenty-five years he served as an officer in the Metropolitan Police, rising to the rank of Chief Superintendent before his retirement on medical grounds in 2018.

John is a sought-after public speaker and commentator on a broad range of issues, who regularly appears on TV and radio and writes for major newspapers.

His first book, BLUE, written and published while he was still serving in the Met, was a Sunday Times bestseller.

It tells the remarkable stories of his policing life and describes his long road to recovery following the serious nervous breakdown that ended his operational policing career.

As always, please buy from Independents if you can XX