TRISTAN'S RETREAT

Book excerpt: Tristan Flynn, a once well-known journalist, has in late retirement written a book under a pseudonym, 'The Satanic State', which has resulted in a fatwah. Will the jehadists identify him and exact the prescribed penalty? Detective Inspector Trent and Sergeant Rose Beaumont arrive in Cornwall to confirm his identity and to discover what the lessee of an island, Ahmad Khan, who has populated it with Muslims and alienated the local community, is planning. Beneath the dramatic structure, however, the novel is a multi-faceted study of old age leavened with humour.