Saturday 14 July 2012

Vulture's Lair - some background to events in the novel


The Cod Wars were a series of confrontations in the 1950s and 1970s between the United Kingdom and Iceland regarding fishing rights in the North Atlantic. Icelandic gunboats harassed British trawlers and cut their trawls in the seventies. The Royal Navy deployed warships and tugboats to act as a deterrent against harassment of British trawlers, resulting in direct confrontations, the most famous incident when the Falmouth rammed the tiny Týr. The tiny gunboat was heavily damaged and almost sunk, propelled by only a single screw it was pursued by a British tugboat.
The disputes ended in 1976 after Iceland threatened to close the Keflavik NATO base in retaliation for Britain's deployment of naval vessels. The British government conceded and withdrew its trawlers from Icelandic waters on 1st of December 1976.


About the book
A gripping political thriller set a few years into the future when the EU has become a fully federal superstate. A political elite out of control. A lone man seeking the truth Murder, mayhem and intrigue leading to the Vulture's Lair Brussels. The highest ranking Icelandic official at the United States of Europe, Solman Smithson, hears the voice of his old friend Krummi, who is fighting off armed guards. Krummi and Solman grew up together in the Westman Islands but while Solman became a bureaucrat, Krummi went to sea as one of Iceland's last fishermen. The Vulture is looking down on its prey. The chance encounter takes place as the new president, Erich Devereux, is installed into power. But rumours circulate that corrupt votes put him in power. Murders and violent attacks on journalists and academics proliferate in an apparently unconnected way. And as momentum builds in Iceland for independence from the USE the tempo of violence and intrigue quickens. The Vulture moves toward its prey. Fate decrees that only the big fisherman from the Westman Islands stands in the way of the dark forces of chaos. But can a fisherman from Iceland work out what is really going on. And can he survive long enough to make a difference. The Vulture closes in.

No comments:

Post a Comment