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Description

Based on the author's 32 years as a Royal Marines officer in numerous war zones, including leading the amphibious assault in the Falklands War, Death's Sting tells this fictional tale of international intrigue, murder, love and revenge.The Balkans War of the 1990s is the setting, with 200,000 Serbs about to be ethnically cleansed despite United Nations attempts to prevent the slaughter, rape and destruction of their 500-year homeland.During a Serbian artillery attack Matea Markovic and her young son are saved by James Laidlaw, ex-Royal Navy officer and European Community monitor, but he soon realises that there are even greater evil forces at play. Colonel Ante Slavic of the Croatian army is determined to prevent James from discovering the truth of his murderous campaign and is prepared to kill anyone who stands in his way, including Matea and her son.With American Special Forces and the Secret Services of France, Germany, Greece and Britain all in theatre James is forced to fight on many fronts.James, Matea and her son are in danger once again when the indicted war criminal Slavic, on the run from justice, pursues them to the rugged south Cornish coast where the outcome, and who is destined for a watery grave, are far from certain.While the author's expertise and experience is demonstrated throughout, readers will have to decide for themselves how close to the truth Death's Sting really is.

Sujets

Historical fiction

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Publié par	eBook Versions
Date de parution	06 février 2017
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781843964377
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0250€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Published by Westlake Books

Copyright © 2017 Ewen Southby-Tailyour
All rights reserved

Ewen Southby-Tailyour has asserted his
right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988 be identified as the
author of this work

ISBN 978-1-84396-437-7

Also available in paperback
ISBN 978-1-54084-935-9

Ebook production
eBook Versions
27 Old Gloucester Street
London WC1N 3AX
www.ebookversions.com

The characters and organisations
described in this novel are entirely
fictional and figments of the author s
imagination. The presence of names
that are shared by living persons or
actual organisations s the result of
unintended coincidence.

No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in or introduced into
a retrieval system or transmitted in
any form or by any means electronic,
photomechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise without the prior written
permission of the publisher. Any person
who does any unauthorised act in relation
to this publication may be liable to
criminal prosecution.
Contents

PROLOGUE
Friday 4th August 1995
Operation Storm.
Drniš, Republic of Serbian Krajina.

CHAPTER ONE
Sunday 7th August 1988
Percuil House, Tredenhum Road, St Mawes,
Cornwall, England.

CHAPTER TWO
Sunday 3rd October 1993
Percuil House,
Tredenhum Road, St Mawes,
Cornwall, England.

CHAPTER THREE
Tuesday 30th November 1993
Zagreb Airport, Croatia.

CHAPTER FOUR
Saturday 4th December 1993
Headquarters, European Community
Monitoring Mission, Hotel Betonska,
Remetinečka 106, Zagreb, Croatia.

CHAPTER FIVE
Wednesday 7th December 1993
Headquarters, Hellenic Navy,
229 Mesogion Avenue, 15561 Cholargos,
Athens, Greece.

CHAPTER SIX
Saturday 4th December 1993
Headquarters, ECMM Coordinating Centre,
Hotel Adriatica,
Majstora Radovana 7,
Zadar, Croatia.

CHAPTER SEVEN
Sunday 5th December 1993
Headquarters, ECMM Coordinating Centre,
Hotel Adriatica,
Majstora Radovana 7,
Zadar, Croatia.

CHAPTER EIGHT
Monday 6th December 1993
Headquarters, ECMM Regional Centre,
Ulica Kneza Trpimira, Knin,
Republic of Serbian Krajina.

CHAPTER NINE
Thursday 9th December 1993
Room 519, Hotel Split,
Put Trstenika 19, Split, Croatia.

CHAPTER TEN
Friday 10th December 1993
Defense Attaché s Office,
United States Embassy,
Hebrangova 2, Zagreb, Croatia

CHAPTER ELEVEN
Monday 13th December 1993
Team Split Office, Hotel Split,
Put Trstenika 19, Split, Croatia.

CHAPTER TWELVE
Saturday 18th December 1993
Adriatic Yacht Club Marina,
Marina Kaštela, Split, Croatia.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Monday 20th December 1993
Headquarters, Direction générale
de la sécurité extérieure,
141 Boulevard Mortier,
Paris XX, France.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Tuesday 21st December 1993
Headquarters, 4th Guards Brigade,
Hotel Resnik, Put Resnika,
Kaštela, Croatia.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN
0100A Wednesday 22nd December 1993
USS Drake s Flight Deck,
Central Adriatic Sea.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Wednesday 22nd December 1993
Room 519, Hotel Split,
Put Trstenika 19,
Split, Croatia.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Wednesday 22nd December 1993
Headquarters, 4th Guards Brigade,
Hotel Resnik, Put Resnika,
Kaštela, Croatia

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Thursday 23rd December 1993
Room 519, Hotel Split,
Put Trstenika 19,
Split, Croatia.

CHAPTER NINETEEN
Monday 10th January 1994
Team Split Office, Hotel Split,
Put Trstenika 19,
Split, Croatia.

CHAPTER TWENTY
Tuesday 8th February 1994
Headquarters, 4th Guards Brigade,
Hotel Resnik, Put Resnika,
Kaštela, Croatia.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Thursday 3rd March 1994
ECMM Land Rover,
en route Ploĉe.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Sunday 6th March 1994
Headquarters, 4th Guards Brigade,
Hotel Resnik, Put Resnika,
Kaštela, Croatia.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Monday 7th March 1994
Hotel Split,
Put Trstenika 19,
Split, Croatia.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Monday 7th March 1994
Veško polje airstrip,
Brač Island, Croatia.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Tuesday 8th March 1994
Villa Perunika,
Šetalište Ivana Meštrovica,
Split, Croatia.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Monday 13th March 1994
Villa Perunika, Šetalište
Ivana Meštrovica,
Split, Croatia.

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
Friday 28th July 1995
Percuil House, Tredenhum Road,
St Mawes, Cornwall, England.

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
Wednesday 9th August 1995
Royal Cornwall Hospital,
Treliske, Truro, Cornwall, England.

EPILOGUE
Tuesday 4th August 2015
20th Anniversary of
Operation Storm
Croatian Airlines Flight OU491
Heathrow to Split Airport

AUTHOR S NOTES
Other books

Military Histories and Biographies
Falkland Islands Shores
Reasons in Writing: A Commando s
View of the Falklands War
Amphibious Assault Falklands:
The Battle for San Carlos
Blondie: A Life of Lieutenant-Colonel
HG Hasler, DSO, OBE, RM
The Next Moon. A Special Operations
Executive Agent in France
HMS Fearless. The Mighty Lion
3 Commando Brigade, Helmand
Commando Assault, Helmand
Nothing Impossible. A Portrait of
The Royal Marines 1664-2010 (Editor)
Exocet Falklands. The Untold Story
of Special Forces Operations

Fiction
Skeletons for Sadness

Reference
Jane s Amphibious Warfare Capabilities
Jane s Special Forces Equipment Recognition Guide
Jane s Amphibious and Special Forces
About the author

Ewen Southby-Tailyour, who was educated at the Nautical College Pangbourne and Grenoble University, was commissioned into the Royal Marines in 1960 and served, inter alia , with the French Commando Hubert in the south of France and Corsica; with the Unites States Marine Corps in the Mediterranean; in the West Indies; in the Dhofar War (where he was awarded the Sultan of Muscat s Bravery Medal) in Northern Ireland; in Hong Kong; on North Sea oil rigs; in Arctic Norway and throughout the Falklands Campaign (following which he was appointed an OBE).
In 1982 he was elected British Yachtsman of the Year.
He retired in 1992 as a Lieutenant-Colonel and the following year joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for duties as a monitor with the European Community Monitoring Mission (ECMM) in the Former Republic of Yugoslavia. Here he was tasked informally by the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) to keep an eye on one or two individuals while reporting on Croatia s preparation for war against the breakaway, so-called Republic of Serbian Krajina.
He resigned from the ECMM in 1994 in protest at being ordered to falsify his daily reports in order to prevent the breaking of United Nations Arms Embargo, 713 being made public.
Death s Sting is a novel based on the author s experiences in the Republic of Serbian Krajina and Croatia.
Apart from the Presidents of Croatia and the United States, and those mentioned in the Author s Notes, all characters are figments of the author s imagination.
DEATH S
STING

Ewen Southby-Tailyour

WESTLAKE BOOKS
O death where is thy sting?
O grave where is thy victory?

1 Corinthians, 15:55
Prologue
Friday 4th August 1995
Operation Storm
Drniš village, Republic of Serbian Krajina.

The first, hollow-nosed, 9 mm round from Colonel Ante Slavić s, Croatian Special Forces, HS 95 pistol gouged a long trough through the skin, hair and shallow flesh of James Laidlaw s scalp, half an inch above his left ear. Stunned by the shockwave and a violent, stinging pain James staggered sideways, dropping the charred, skeletal body of the tiny Croatian woman he was carrying beneath his right arm. Her husband, his eyeballs partially vaporised by the flames, clutched at James s belt: his only guide to safety away from the inferno that had been their house - their home since marriage, over sixty years before.
Matea Laidlaw, eight and a half-months pregnant, ran forwards screaming, Mama . Tata! Oh my God. James help them. Oh God please help them!
…but she was too late to say goodbye.
Turning, with loathing distorting her face, she launched herself at Slavić shouting My parents! My parents. You ve murdered my parents. The colonel, grinning with a perverse pleasure, was too quick for her flailing arms. Aiming behind the approaching woman, his second, hollow-nosed round slammed into James s left shoulder splintering bone, tearing muscle, exploding soft tissue, snapping tendons. The violent impact spun him round, hastening his fall to the ground as blood began flooding through his shirt and down the white, sleeveless pullover s V-neck. He dragged Matea s father with him.
Carefully following his falling target Slavić s third shot bored straight through the Croatian man s forehead. In a dreadful red mist, brains and blood splattered onto the path behind. He was dead before he collapsed across his wife s already-still figure. Fast losing consciousness himself, James tried to squirm free from the obscene pile but his body had lost its strength and was swiftly losing its blood: some of which was now bubbling from a corner of his mouth.
Ignoring Slavić, Matea knelt by her father and mother but there was nothing she could do for them: now James, her son Dino and the child she was carrying were all she had left. She reached for her husband s near-lifeless hand. He was mouthing something, his lips moving but making little sound. Matea bent lower. I - love - you, he was struggling to form each word individually. Name - the - baby - after - your - father - or - mother - and - and… His eyelids fluttered and closed.
No time for that, Matea surprised even herself with her cool and rational assessment, ‘I ve got to stop the bloody bleeding...
Looking round for a dressing - anything would do - she watched Slavić standing over the grim tableau, surveying his handiwork. His legs were apart, one hand rested on a hip, the other waved his handgun. Got what they deserved, he mocked, Serb-loving traitors...
You vile man, Matea spoke slowly, quietly and deliberately while removi