Lily Pad Roll

Book excerpt: With his new 'spy novel', Lily Pad Roll-a sequel to The Trojan Spy-Gaither Stewart reinforces his claim to join the distinguished ranks of authors like Graham Greene and John le Carr who are not only great storytellers, but whose stories burn with a passion for truth and justice. The 'political' thriller plays an important role in today's world, filling a gap left by the near-total demise of investigative journalism. Stewart "tells it like it is"-and not yesterday's news, but the here and now: in this case, the surreptitious spread of Western neo-imperialism across the planet, and in particular its agenda of encirclement and attempted emasculation of the "old enemy," Russia. Stewart marshals his sometimes unruly cast of engaging characters with consummate skill. In that manner, Lily Pad Roll offers a fresh perspective on world events, unraveling layer after layer the deceit concealed in the imposition of "democracy" on a recalcitrant world. Georgia, Syria, Serbia and Iran may not seem to have much in common, but all four are influenced by the same forces. When a young journalist travels through Eastern Europe to investigate America's new military presence among post-communist countries torn between fragile democracy and a shifting geopolitical situation, he himself falls into the murderous sights of US secret services. The author's deep understanding of the region enables him to present the story behind the story, from the perspective of local people, without ever losing sight of breaking events and the reality that the US continues its century-old containment of Russia by any means necessary, even at the risk of a true cataclysmic global war.