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Austin Macauley Publishers - Ray White

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62 pages

English

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This book begins with the history of Cyprus from the Bronze Age to the present day and uses hypothetical events during the ages and its occupations. A retired couple decides to live in what is now called The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Ray is a retired mining engineer and his wife, Chantel, a technical translator. Ray becomes fascinated with a large earth mound on the slopes of the Kyrenia Mountains which, according to the locals, was an ancient burial site called Vounos. He could not ignore the fact that their neighbour spent hours looking through a powerful telescope from his balcony towards Kyrenia Harbour and the Turkish mainland. The couple decides to visit the disused Cyprus copper mine located west of the island near Lefka, not aware of being investigated by MI6 agents who had already bugged their villa. They decide to visit the old mine again to observe a sophisticated drilling rig being used for illicit oil and gas exploration only to be discovered, apprehended, interrogated and tortured. What will be consequences they have to bear for their actions?

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Thriller

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Publié par	Austin Macauley Publishers
Date de parution	29 janvier 2021
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781528993401
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0175€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

L egacy of V ounos
Ray White
Austin Macauley Publishers
2021-01-29
Legacy of Vounos About the Author Dedication Copyright Information © Acknowledgement Synopsis The History The Novel
About the Author
The author is a retired highly qualified engineer who has worked for a number of international consultants, specialising in the design and construction of major tunnelling and infrastructure projects.
During his career, he has also been interested in the development of oil and gas drilling technology, which is one of the main reasons for writing this book. Additionally, Ray has a passion for mining archaeology, which again is expressed in this novel.
Having lived in Northern Cyprus with his late wife, Madeleine, he observed a structure to the rear of their property, which the locals called Vounos and were adamant that it was an ancient burial site. To Ray, it was more than that and was almost certainly a spoil heap from the Bronze Age mine workings. In fact, you could see where the old miners had excavated into the side of the Kyrenia Mountain Range at the rear of Vounos.
That’s how this book was conceived and developed.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my loving wife, Madeleine, who sadly died from brain cancer during 2013 when we were living in Southern France. Madeleine was an attractive, intelligent, loving and forgiving lady who was taken from this world prematurely. She was the daughter of a high-ranking French diplomat and a highly qualified technical translator, fluent in five languages. She is dearly missed by me and her children. This book is for you, darling. I said I would finish it.
Copyright Information ©
Ray White (2021)
The right of Ray White to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528993395 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781528993401 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2021)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
Acknowledgement
I acknowledge the assistance of my professors and lecturers from the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, London, who awarded me with my honours and postgraduate degrees in mining and geotechnical engineering. This provided me with a thorough understanding of underground construction and oil field drilling technology which enabled me with a degree of confidence in writing and producing this book.
Synopsis
This book is in two parts: the history and a novel.
The name Cyprus is derived from the Latin name for copper, aes Cyprium, the metal of Cyprus later shortened; it is understood, to Cuprum.
In the first section, it begins in the 4 th millennium BC, the Bronze Age and then travels through the ages to using hypothetical examples of how these people may have lived during the development of the country to the present day.
The history describes the changes that took place during varying occupation of the country including the original Bronze Age people, then the Romans, the British, the involvement of the US owned Cyprus Mines Corporation and finally the devastation caused by the Greeks after WWII and the invasion by the Turkish Army during 1974.
The second section of this book is a novel where a retired couple decided to leave the UK and live in what is now called TRNC, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Ray is a retired mining/tunnelling engineer, a graduate and post-graduate of Imperial College. Chantal, his wife is a technical translator, an arts graduate in French and French Literature from Queen Mary’s University, London.
The couple lived quite contented in a villa they had built off-plan during their first few months, but Ray became bored where as his wife was still translating. Ray became fascinated in a large earth mound high up on the slopes of the Kyrenia mountain range behind their property. On investigation, he learnt that according to the locals it was an ancient burial site.
However, the more he looked at it, and with a genuine interest in mining engineering archaeology, he was convinced it was almost certainly an old spoil heap from the Bronze Age period. It was the shape that made him come to this conclusion with a natural angle of repose on the forward slope and a steep, inclined backward slope where miners would have probably hauled the spoil in leather bags from the excavations and dumped it over the top.
Over the next year, the couple met up with their immediate neighbours; a character called Jacko and his wife, a retired sale director; and David, a retired academic and his partner. They went out to dinner together on a number of occasions, but Jacko did not like David because of his devout religious convictions and the dinner would normally end up acrimoniously.
In this book, the author has tried to describe the Turkish culture, their culture and the cuisine of the region. It also discusses in some depth the local characters the couple came into contact with. Sometimes they found them fascinating, sometimes amusing and sometimes bloody intolerable.
While Chantal was translating in an office located adjacent to their balcony overlooking the sea and Turkish mainland, Ray would sit in his favourite canvas deck chair on the veranda, drinking vast quantities of Gin and Martini and people-watching to his heart’s content, cogitating and reminiscing on his career and past life. In the evening, they recall the sounds of cycads rubbing their poor little legs off in search of a mate and the surrounding engulfing fragrance from the rosemary and Cyprus Pine.
Ray became obsessed with the Vounos Burial Mound and regularly took himself off for a walk behind the villa and stared at it trying to establish exactly when mining took place and where the old mine excavation would have been. On closer inspection, he could observe which, in his own experience as a mining engineer, were man made workings in the mountain at the rear of the mound.
The next day, he decided to visit with Chantal the closed down Cyprus Mines Corporation site located to the far west of the Island and once more became engrossed in some very strange observations and possible activity at the disused mine site.
When back at their villa, while taking his usual tipple the next morning, he could not ignore the fact that his neighbour with his damn great telescope was still looking towards the Kyrenia, now called Girne, harbour from his bedroom balcony. Additionally, another visitor with his wife had just turned up and was behaving as though he was an officer’s attendant towards Jacko. Over time, this behaviour continued and became more and more noticeable.
After a few weeks the couple went back to take a much closer look at the disused mine site not knowing they were being closely monitored from an ancient black E Class Mercedes. On arrival at the site, Ray stepped out of the 4-track and walked down towards the locked out mine entrance. He quickly realised the padlock was brand new yet the mine had been closed off soon after the invasion by the Turkish Army back in 1974. On his way back, he also noticed recently formed tracks coming from an area of ground above the mine entrance down towards the mine.
The couple returned to their villa again not realising they were being followed by the old black Merc who found out exactly where they lived.
After a number of weeks, they were becoming obsessed with this old mine site and like James Bond 007 decided to visit in the very early hours and investigate the entrance more closely. At the site, Ray advised Chantal to stay in the car and drive it to a place where it could not be seen from passing traffic or prying eyes. Having reached the mine entrance, he saw an opening in the fence probably where the local kids made visits.
He managed with difficulty to crawl through the hole and walked carefully to suddenly hear the sound of machinery coming further down the old entrance tunnel. With stealth, he carried on to hear voices and found a very sophisticated drilling rig being used, which would normally be used for oil and gas exploration. He decided it best to leave before being found out by any guards and walked quickly back to the main road where Chantal should have been, but his wife was nowhere to be seen. Then a vehicle sped towards him, it was his wife who shouted at him to get in as she was convinced they had been followed.
All the while, the couple were occupied in their secret service investigations, they were being watched and discussed by military intelligence who had already bugged their villa and had heard all their conversations intimately of otherwise.
The couple were allowed, within reason, to continue their interest in the old mine site. However, this group of secret service personnel learnt they had found out about the drilling rig, which was carrying out illicit oil drilling operations and decided to act. The next time they again went to the mine they were both apprehended by guards and taken to a prison cell to be interrogated with an option to torture both of them.
They were eventually rescued by secret service agents, one of which turned out to be Jacko who told them to leave the Island immediate