Killing Ground - 1997

Summary
A young English schoolteacher, Charlotte Parsons, is invited by letter to resume her job as nanny to the children of a well-to-do Sicilian family.
At first, anything to get away from an unrewarding job in a quiet Devon village seems tempting. But this time the Sicilian job is going to be different. This time Charley is the central figure in a desperate plot by the US Drug Enforcement Agency to trap Mario Ruggerio, putative head of the Sicilian Mafia, the man who masterminds a multi-billion dollar international drug trade.

Charley is to be the live-bait and, in deciding to return to the Ruggerio family in Palmero, she is about to enter the killing ground.

Extract
They would not hear him when he shouted that it was the fault of the girl, that his father should be blamed.
He hated the girl.
He rejected his father.
He was so frightened.
He could go into the drum of acid, he could go into the concrete, he could go into the dark depths of the gully where the crows did not feed...No one knew where to search for him.

Reviews
"The best mafia thriller since Mario Puzo's The Godfather" DAILY MAIL

"A plot that drives remorselessly onward. One of Britain's most skilful practitioners of thriller writing in its most authentic and well-placed variety" SUNDAY EXPRESS

"A tense, taut tail of mounting suspense and emotional drama. A thriller in the true sense of the word. Mario Puzo. Eat your heart out" THE TIMES

"Skilful and exciting...An engrossing read" THE SUNDAY TIMES

Customer Review
"A good book to me is when you reach the last word on the last page and you say, 'brilliant'. Then you spend time thinking about it. There aren't many books that command such a reaction but 'Killing Ground' is a perfect example. The build-up is long and slow. It works the plots around the characters and their motivations (not the other way around, which seems to be more traditional in this sort of genre) and Sicily, where most of the book is set, comes to life with intensely strong characters."