This page is a guide to my novels and where you can read about them. I have written four linked thrillers; two linked comedies; and two linked science fiction novels. Three novels are on sale so far.
Palladium
Palladium is an international thriller set in Istanbul. It introduces John Savage, a British spy thrown out of MI6 for gross misconduct in Moscow. He now works in Istanbul. When his archaeologist ex-girlfriend Elif is kidnapped with the Palladium, an ancient talisman said to have protective powers, Savage must track down both to stop fanatics unleashing untold destruction on the turbulent mega-city whose success is a symbol that East and West can coexist. You can read more about Palladium, on this site, by clicking on the picture.
Blood Summit
Thriller writer John Connolly described my Berlin thriller Blood Summit as “hugely entertaining”.
The leaders of the eight most powerful countries in the world, and one hundred schoolchildren, are taken hostage by the terrorists from hell at a summit in the Reichstag in Berlin.
Then the executions start, streamed live on TV.
Diplomat and counter-terrorism expert Helen Gale, whose job is to protect the summit, thinks she knows how to stop the slaughter. But Helen’s boss, Jason Short, bans her from the operation; her lover, Dieter Kremp, seems responsible for the terrorists’ success; and her husband, Nigel, is amongst the hostages in the Reichstag.
“Utterly gripping – I devoured it” – Edmund de Waal, author of “The Hare with Amber Eyes”
“Blood Summit is a cracker. Turner has hit the ground running” – Matthew Parris, author and commentator.
Check out other reviews on Amazon here. These are from the previous edition, written under my pseudonym Robert Pimm, which has more reviews!
You can find Blood Summit on Amazon as a paperback or, for instant download, an e-book.
Eternal Life
Eternal Life is my sci-fi thriller for a world obsessed by living for ever. It is set in California, New York, London and Vienna. In a future world, civilisation has run into a self-induced cul-de-sac in the quest for Eternal life. The novel is a crossover between Cloud Atlas, A Handmaid’s Tale, Brazil and Gulliver’s Travels. You can read the opening of Eternal Life on this site.
Other international thrillers
The Skip Outside the Lenin Museum is a thriller set in 1990s Moscow. It belongs to the same series as Blood Summit, A Killing in Sevastopol and Palladium. Chronologically, it is the first of the four. Skip, too, is in the drawer for the time being. I wrote it in Moscow in 1994-5.
A Killing in Sevastopol is a thriller set in Kyiv and Crimea about tensions between Russia and Ukraine. I wrote it in 2013. It is a prequel to Palladium and, like Palladium, stars John Savage. In Killing, you can read about the incident which led to Savage being thrown out of MI6 in Moscow. You can learn her returned to work five years later as as a diplomat in Kyiv. Finally you can see how his love for Natasha, a Ukrainian journalist, sweeps him up into an existential struggle between Russia and Ukraine. This novel, written in 2013, is also at present in the drawer.
Political comedies
I have written three full-length political comedies. The first, with a working title of Sex and the Summit, is set in London, Berlin and Cologne. The second, code-named The Boyfriend, takes place three years after Sex and the Summit and is set in London, Dresden and Berlin. The third, code-named The Spear of Destiny, takes place three years after The Boyfriend. It is set in the British embassy in Vienna. All these novels are at present “in the drawer”.
Other sci-fi thrillers
Holiday Period is a prequel to Eternal Life, set hundreds of years earlier in London. Holiday Period is at present “in the drawer”, but I hope to set it on a path to publication shortly.
What will be published next?
I expect my next book to be The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Diplomacy, a guide to diplomacy and life due to be published in German, by Czernin Verlag, in spring 2023. English language rights are still available. I have also started work on a new international thriller.
TV and film
I am hoping that with the profusion of content generated by Netflix, Amazon Prime and other channels specialising in the production of TV series and movies, several of these tales may turn out to be suitable for film or TV production. In the way of these things, any such adaptations will probably take place around fifty years after my death.
Short stories
If you would like to know more about my short stories, including my published collection Seven Hotel Stories, please click on the “My short stories” page.
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