When an elderly couple save you from a bad death in the Sahara, there's an honest debt to be paid. But this couple have unexpected plans: one leads to the bedroom, the other an impossible trip back to Europe where the author is wanted in Brussels for the murder of the president of the European Union. In both cases, determined killers lie in wait. Friends turn out to be, well, unfriendly. Reappearing is Chris Heal's sequel to his semi-autobiographical Disappearing. All he ever wanted to do was to shrug off his identity, throw off the claws and trappings of government, big business and petty bureaucracy. He wanted to become free of other people trying to run his life. But the authorities weren't happy with the idea. A senior policeman in National Counter Terrorism said Heal's first book was 'subversive' and 'should not receive the breath of publicity'. Another, attached to the European Commission, called him an amoral, calculating, mass murderer. 'Whether alive or not, he should be brought to book.' Heal's last journey takes him through the decline of the French empire, the terror of Islamic insurgency and the modern African slave trade. His nomadic life leads him to places he really shouldn't visit; meeting people it's best not to know. All the time, he follows clues that might lead him to his unknown father, fearful of what he might find and might have to relive. For a man in his seventies, Heal manages quite well until the Chinese decide to take a hand. This is an intelligent detective story, wrapped up in a global travel adventure and set against the background of twentieth century history. What kind of worthwhile freedom is possible in a technology driven planet run by control freaks? Reappearing is also a scary prophesy of everyone's near future in a world increasingly dominated by Chinese political, military and commercial power.

This book is about a large number of deliberate or untimely deaths in what was thought to be one of the quiet backwaters of Hampshire. In this true-life thriller, Chris Heal investigates twenty local murders beginning in Roman times, over half of them since 1900 and three within the last few years. They are all here: drug runners, people traffickers, robbers and smugglers; killers of animals, of babies, young children and the senile; those who planned revenge and sought the righting of wrongs; battle slaughter, corruption in the legal processes and mob rule. 'I don't hold a magic magnet for attracting this sort of information but you will understand that once you start asking, once you start looking, then people start talking. Odd facts jump out from unrelated pages and take new meanings. People brood for a month or two, then make contact. Collecting murders is like rolling a snowball.' In the conclusion, Heal asks why Four Marks is the murder capital of Southern England. Using careful research, the history of the village is revealed. From prehistoric times, Four Marks was an empty squeeze point on the road north. Formed in 1932, it lacked the heart of a medieval village. Its scrub wasteland was only lately filled by a population with far-flung roots. As well as exploding cherished myths, Heal uncovers a surprising secret that links local development to both a great political movement and one of the UK's largest corporations.

You may assume that most of this book is fantasy, but the facts check out. You sense that the author has been there, from rock climbing to Van Gogh, from flamenco to the Biafran war, from begging in Winchester to travelling through the Sahara. Much of the story may be true. It could even mostly be true. Two parcels of fifty copies each of Disappearing were ordered to confidential addresses in London and Brussels. A file was compiled to aid a decision on whether to suppress publication, parts of which were leaked to the Daily Telegraph. Names of the individuals quoted have been redacted. No censorship was ordered. 'The book explains how an individual can divest themselves of identity, go off grid and use terrorist-supporting Hawala to move money. Heal's success is a direct threat to our banking system and a danger to Western civilisation.' Senior Executive Officer, International Monetary Fund, Informal Funds Transfers 'Any story that quotes freely from Aeschylus, Ascherson, Basho, Bowles, Cervantes, Dostoevsky, Eliot, Herodotus, Kant, Larkin, Mandelstam, and a dozen more, must have something going for it.' Professor, Oxford University, attached to the Home Office 'He snipes at most aspects of European government. If what he says wasn't so inherently dangerous, I would recommend ignoring this petulant book.' Senior Conservative politician, attached to National Counter Terrorism Security Office