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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
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