Michael Bowery’s first novel and the real conspiracies of the 1990 Gulf War with Harry Canham in Canham’s Run previously published as The Centaur File.
ISBN: 0-620-36927-2
94.050 words
CANHAM’S RUN:- A British Intelligence project named Centaur. The assassination of Gerald Bull and the conspiracies of the 1990 Gulf War.
Dr Gerald Bull, a Canadian ballistics scientist was assassinated outside his flat in Brussels on March 23rd 1990, midway through his development project of Iraqi artillery for Saddam Hussein. The looming tensions of the Gulf War begin to close in on Intelligence officer, Harry Canham who leads the British Intelligence monitoring of Bull’s activities in a project called Centaur.
Drawn into a conspiracy spanning from Beirut to Baghdad, London to Washington, Canham becomes the target of an Israeli assassin, and the holder of information he may well have to die for. A kill or be killed effort to survive amid the darker side of the conspiracies surrounding the Gulf War and those who endured them.
Fiction one might say or is it?
Reviews:
‘Author Michael Bowery, as befits a good old fashioned spy, has a marvellous platform of knowledge and jargon on which to build his cloak and dagger story of a maverick British Secret Service agent Harry Canham. The result, a thoroughly readable spy thriller set against a background of an impending Gulf War with a South African connection.’
Terence Friend - The Citizen. Johannesburg.
Harry Canham is an experienced British Intelligence officer running a project to monitor Canadian metallurgist Dr Gerald Bull's work in the development of an Iraqi supergun.
However, when Bull is assassinated in Brussels, it is widely suspected that Mossad (The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations) are involved.
Harry, despite having thoughts of hanging up his gun belt and retiring to be with his longstanding and supportive wife Jenny, soon finds himself a target which leads him on a desperate and dangerous mission across Europe, the Middle East and America, closely watched by CIA and SIS.
The layout of this novel was original from the start. It gave a real sense of preparing the reader for what was to come and set the scene for the events that followed. The plot was easily believable throughout, perhaps owing to the author's own experiences as an agent in the 1980's, and written as a diary of events, which was clear and factual in style.
A great conspiracy thriller which is well worth a read!
London Evening Telegraph 15th-17th December 2005
‘Writing with the confidence of the insider’s knowledge, Bowery weaves an entirely credible script which takes the reader from Brussels to Baghdad, London to Lisbon.
Certainly, fans of James Bond, Harry Palmer and Jack Ryan will find in Harry Canham a new hero, and one who plays as much by his own rules as those essentially amoral, nameless spymasters whose very mystery fuels the imagination of authors year upon year.’