Blind Eye — John McLaren

When duty and conscience collide...Chris Cameron is clever, charismatic, a natural leader. But he would never have risen so high in the Navy without mastering the maverick streak that defined his early career as a fighter pilot, and still shows up in his turbulent love life. When Whitehall picks up intelligence suggesting that the ruler of a former African colony might secretly be planning ethnic cleansing, they order Cameron's carrier, HMS Indomitable, to take up position near the country's territorial waters, but not to intervene. On board is an embedded journalist, the highly attractive but equally feisty Grace Parsons. This assignment could make or break her career, and she needs to keep coolly detached. The last thing she expects is to get deeply emotionally involved when brutalised refugees of the regime come aboard, carrying clearer evidence of looming catastrophe. As international pressure on the Foreign Office to withdraw the carrier intensifies, the situation on the ground deteriorates. Cameron comes face to face with the greatest crisis of his professional and personal life, a dilemma which could present the government with the truly ultimate military nightmare. With searing pace and chilling authenticity, this gripping thriller predicts a flashpoint which some day, somewhere in the world's armed forces, will undoubtedly happen. It is only a matter of time.