The Trap out now in the US
Hooray, it’s arrived! Today is publication day for the US edition of THE TRAP, which you can buy now from your favourite (or, I should say, favorite) book store – or any of the links below.
It’s weird straddling two worlds. I was born and raised in the Texas, and started my writing career there as a crime reporter. But I’ve lived in the UK as long as I did in the US, just about, and so I very much feel part of both. I don’t know if you’ve seen any of my recent TV or radio interviews but people often comment on my accent, which has got so mixed up over the years that it’s settled into a kind of Hepburn-esque mid-Atlantic lilt. And I also think this dual culture is reflected in my writing. The Emma Makepeace series are very, very British. Emma lives and works in London, for a determinedly British institution, with her closest ally being her extremely English, upper-class boss. And just as the first title in the series was a love letter to London, The Trap is a one to Edinburgh, the beautiful Scottish capital that captured my heart the very first time I visited.
BUT Emma is also half-Russian, and this seeps through into her personality and her actions in the most unexpected of ways. She feels that duality every day, and it changes the way she relates to her work, her colleagues and her environment. It never leaves you, that part of your heritage, that sense of having a foot in each place and of being somehow… both. And I think that’s why US release dates always feel so special to me. I remember all too well spending hours in my nearest Barnes and Noble, and what it was like to head into the city to pick up a new release I’d been waiting for. And the thought that people across the States could be doing that for MY book is still very special. Always will be, I think.
Anyway, all that is to say: if you’re in the US, I will be over the moon if you head out today and pick up a copy of The Trap. Here’s a little bit about it so you can decide if it’s for you…
Emma Makepeace is headed to Edinburgh for the global G7 Summit when her team is tipped off about a high-profile assassination the Russians are planning—but they have no idea who the target is. All they know is that Nick Orlov, a newly minted British citizen with strong ties to Russia in his past, is somehow involved.
With the eyes of the world on the summit, the agency assigns Emma a partner on the ground: Kate Mackenzie, a jaded Edinburgh cop who resents the implication that she needs help with her job just as much as Emma does. Despite their initial clash, Emma and Mackenzie forge a begrudging mutual respect in their hunt for a killer.
To stop the assassination in time, they have to get close—very close—to Orlov. Surrounded by the world’s most powerful political leaders in a gridlocked city, Emma must set a trap and use herself as bait.
With time running short, Emma faces the most perilous mission of her career. How far will she go to catch the killer?
P.S. Want to win a signed copy? Join my book club where I’ll be giving away five copies next week!
