Unravelling secrets, one chilling page at a time.
My debut novel โThe Stowawayโ is a spy/crime thriller set in late 1970’s in and around Gibraltar, North Africa and Europeโ follow Greg Blake, a young British soldier whose dragged into smuggling, espionage, and the kind of choices that change a man.
A story about loyalty, loss of innocence, and the twist of fate that swallow ordinary people.
Blake starts as an ordinary soldier trying to prove himself. By the end, he is reshaped by trauma, crime, and coercion โ caught between Alison’s espionage world, Melissa’s pull back to England, and the smugglers who keep pulling him deeper.
Inside The Stowaway
Beneath the action, the story is about survival under extreme pressure, loss of innocence, betrayal, manipulation, conflicted loyalty โ to country, family, lovers, and self โ and how ordinary people get trapped in violent systems bigger than themselves.
Gibraltar to North Africa
Alison is mysterious and morally complicated โ seductive, intriguing, and tied to espionage and criminal networks. Melissa, Blake’s girlfriend back in England, comes to Gibraltar looking for him and is pulled into the story. The smugglers and gang leaders force Blake into impossible choices.
Themes
Survival
Under extreme pressure
Innocence
Loss of, in stages
Betrayal
By friends, by systems
Loyalty
Country, family, lovers, self
Coercion
Choices made under threat
Transformation
From soldier to survivor
The instrument is character, and character is fate.
Blake’s arc is the spine: an ordinary soldier in over his head, reshaped one decision at a time.
Buy The Stowaway
Reader reviews
“A debut that pulls you under from page one.”
Early reader
On The Stowaway
“Gibraltar comes alive โ you can smell the marina at night.”
Beta reader
On atmosphere
“Greg Blake is the most interesting reluctant operative I’ve read in years.”
Reader
On character
“The pacing won’t let you put it down.”
Reader
On pacing
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