Matt Latham is an Australian foreign correspondent who travels the world’s trouble spots to file stories. He isn’t motivated by journalistic principles but by the money. His latest assignment takes him to Kharkiv in the Ukraine in 2019 to interview a Russian billionaire. But an explosion in the club where they were to meet leaves Katya, his interpreter, dead and Matt in hospital.
When he later pays his respects to Katya’s family, he learns that she was searching for her missing sister, and he is determined to help this broken family. For once, he is motivated by a desire to help, not for money.
His search for Nadiya, the missing sister, takes him into the underworld, a place of double agents, and despicable and ruthless criminals who are distributing drugs and ensnaring innocent women in their human trafficking – Nadiya being just one victim.
This has all the hallmarks of a high-octane thriller, with a strong male protagonist, plenty of twists and turns with double agents and action galore. But it also shines a light on the utter terror and helplessness of many innocent young women around the world who are lured into sexual slavery and who live in horrific conditions. So it’s a much more gut-wrenching read than your standard action thriller when you consider the plight of real women around the world, fictionalised in these pages.
Shadow Lives is well-written and engaging. Although it is sometimes brutal and hard to read, it is most definitely thought-provoking, and I’d like to see more books by this author.
Iain McKenzie
Echo Publishing