I’m excited to be welcoming Gethyn Jones to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for his book, Fatal Equation.

Aged just 16, Ali Kurmi was exiled to Portsmouth by his despicable, sweaty, arrogant, bully-of-a-rich businessman father, to protect the family name. Now in his thirties, Ali’s forced to work as an unofficial bailiff for his father’s property company. The only things keeping him going are his songwriting and DJing.

Laura O’Brien, a former journalist from Dublin is a looker and defies her 52 years – made even more remarkable by her tragic back story. Fate strikes again as her renowned husband of just four years, racehorse breeder Frank O’Brien, collapses and dies of a brain aneurysm. It leaves her broken-hearted, but very rich. Determined to avoid returning to the bottle, and egged on by her sponsor, the enigmatic Alice Kingston, Laura leaves Tipperary to start afresh in Hampshire.

This is the story of Ali and Laura – how they got together – and how they navigate their way through a seemingly endless number of cruel and unlikely twists and turns – that threaten their relationship – and their lives.

Gethyn has shared an extract with us today. We hope you enjoy it.

*****beginning of extract*****

Blurb: Laura O’Brien, a wealthy widow in her fifties, didn’t expect to fall in love again – especially not with a 35-year-old British-Indian songwriter. But when she meets Ali Kurmi, a corporate DJ with his own deeply troubled past, everything changes.

Together, they start to build a life filled with creativity, passion, and purpose. Yet danger still lurks in the shadows – Stephanie, Laura’s scheming stepdaughter, wants blood. Fuelled by greed and resentment, she’s plotting something deadly … and failure isn’t an option.

Set between rural Hampshire and Tipperary, Fatal Equation is an emotional rollercoaster of love, ecstasy, frustration, obsession, and revenge.

… a book that blends the warmth of a feel-good romance with the chilling edge of a thriller …

*****

Announcing to your partner that you’ve become a father with one of your ‘exes’ is never going to be an easy conversation. Ali has been very open with Laura about his previous love life – which inclded a long time with Becky Davies. It was a mutually satisfactory ‘friends with benefits arrangement’. When Ali met Laura, his relationship with Becky ended abruptly – until yesterday when his pal Club Manager Dom contrived to get them to meet up again. It was then that an extremely dishevelled-looking Becky dropped the bombshell.

Ali leans in close to the bathroom mirror, pulls both eyelids down and grunts. He turns his head to the right and then the left. He’s never gone for the George Michael look – the five o’clock shadow. Too much work to keep tidy; so, clean-shaven it’s always been.

He’s had a restless night, hardly surprising under the circumstances. To wake up one day and discover that you’re the father of a three-week-old child that you knew nothing about, is understandably mind-blowing.

He shaves, brushes his teeth, smiles to check them and walks back into the bedroom.

‘How are you my gorgeous daddy-o?’ says Laura teasingly, from somewhere under a pillow.

‘I’m fine. Are you still OK with all this?’

Continue reading →

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