No Holds Barred

The countdown begins… 

One young girl, alone, holds the fate of the West in her hands. 

In July, 1980, Sally Denning faced impossible odds in the Olympic women’s judo finals in Moscow, with a host country not averse to bribing judges or drugging finalists in order to ensure victory for their own athletes. 

Devastated by a loss that by all rights should have been a win, and the gold medal, Sally abandons judo — and the terribly handsome, married coach with whom she is in love — for a new life far away from international competition and intrigue.

Four years later, her past comes crashing into her present. 

Working for Special Branch at Scotland Yard, Sally discovers that by a remarkable coincidence, her former coach — now a widower — works in the same building. 

But their budding romance is threatened by a terrorist threat that no one but Sally believes is real… 

Alone in her frantic mission to stop a crime that will rock the world, Sally races across England to stop an audacious attempt to shift the balance of power in the Western world by assassinating the president of the United States and the British prime minister. 

She knows who it is she hunts but stopping them is a matter of reaching them before the clock reaches zero. 

And as the seconds tick away, on a hill above a small English church, a hand is poised over a switch that will blow the best hopes of the free world sky-high…

‘A well-crafted, gripping thriller’ – Thomas Waugh

‘Entertainment in the traditional style’ – Kirkus Reviews 

Michael Allen is a well-known author of crime fiction and thrillers and he is best known for his series of whodunits featuring Detective Superintendent Spence, including Spence in Petal Park and Spence at the Blue Bazaar.