On the day Jimmy Blake was murdered by Magnus Brannagan,
his son Harry was born and taken to a convent near Marseilles,
where he was raised by an aunt, a nun called Sister Briony.
Twenty-seven years later that same young man finds himself in the
darkness of an empty church on the island of Malta, his finger
trembling on the trigger of a gun, waiting to avenge his father‘s
death.
Harry Blake is a tough young Englishman, recently
demobbed from the Marine Commandos, who lives aboard his
motor cruiser Expatriat in the port of Marseilles. Mary, his mother
is a senior banker and his step-father Andrew Bellamy, is a senior
SA officer.
After two decades, the Blake family still search for the IRA
killer but their efforts are frustrated in the early years when
Brannagan escapes to Libya to train terrorists. Then suddenly, the
Libyan currency is outlawed by the International Monetary Fund,
creating an unusual opportunity for the family to lure Brannagan to
the island of Malta, where a trap could be sprung. The currency
becomes a worthless commodity and is sold off in large batches
instead of bank trading, opening the door to counterfeit gangs
Sister Briony, together with her friend Sister Rosa and Zarak,
a devoted employee of the convent, use their own skills to forge a
consignment of Libyan dinar themselves hoping to tempt the killerto Malta.
The plan works and Brannagan, now an old man, finds
himself framed and expelled from Libya for losing the
consignment. His enemies hear of his plight and descend on the
island, intent on killing him. Frightened and aware of his imminent
fate, having been denied confession because of the evil he has
committed in his life, Brannagan finally gets a priest to hear and
absolve him in the church of St Paul Shipwreck, in Valletta. But
Brannagan is shot dead by someone hidden in the darkness of the
church and discredited at last, his death having far reaching
implications as Sinn Fein attempt to gain political credibility in the
peace process.
So many people had wanted Brannagan dead. The IRA had put a contract out on him, the British police wanted him and so many family members of his victims had tracked him
but his killer remains unknown until
Harry Blake finds Sister Rosa‘s whistle ribbon, wrapped
around a revolver, in her bible bag. The final revelation of who
killed Brannagan closes the case and sets Harry on a new life as
an agent for MI6. .
