During
her years as a teaching assistant in a high school, J Ryan was “blown
away” by the courage displayed by some teenagers who were facing severe
personal difficulties. Convinced that their bravery would stand them in
good stead fighting against society’s worst – including those in the
criminal underworld – she set out to create a teen spy thriller series
in which they were the heroes. And so ‘Missing Dad’ was born. Volume one
‘Wanted’, forces one teenage boy and his girlfriend to grow up more
quickly than they could ever have imagined.
Synopsis:
‘Missing Dad: Wanted’ is the first in a new series featuring the
gutsy Joe St Aubin, the teenage son of a secret agent who has
disappeared while working undercover.
Desperately missing his father and failing at school, Joe is in
deep trouble for driving underage, and suspected of a hit and run. In a
chance encounter with the real culprit, a drug runner, he hands her to
the police. This attracts the attention of billionaire drugs baron
Alfredo Bertolini, who is hell-bent on revenge. Joe is offered a job as
chauffeur to the charismatic Monsieur Le Directeur of L’Ētoile Fine
Wines, where tantalising clues to his father’s fate draw him on.
Joe’s world implodes when he realises that he has been set up as a
drug runner, with a Bentley loaded with cocaine and men with guns
behind him and outside his home. In the most terrifying drive of his
life, Joe has to resort to some unusual tactics to deal with his
unwelcome company.
But even more danger awaits Joe and girlfriend Becks when they
confront Monsieur Le Directeur. The price of discovering whether he is
the friend or foe to Joe’s father is a nightmare of darkness, fire and
water that drives the teenagers to the edge of despair. By the end of
the first novel in the series, Joe knows that Monsieur is the only
person on earth who can help him find his father – but the Frenchman has
gone from his life.
“This first volume, and the entire series, will grip readers as Joe’s
desperate search and love for his father are conveyed on every page,”
explains Ryan. “While it is fiction, the characters are extremely true
to life. I’ve seen teenagers who were tackling personal difficulties
just as bravely as Joe and getting fantastic support from their mates,
so I decided to write a story which would honour that.”
Continuing, “I’m launching the book at the school where it all began,
and I’m hoping that many students and staff will come and celebrate.
But everyone who loves a white-knuckle teen spy thriller will fall for
this story – and books two, three and four as well!”
‘Missing Dad: Wanted’, from Troubador, is due for release on
November 28th, 2015:
http://bit.ly/1KcvYxI.
Book trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_KtoPNa3Gc
Author’s official website:
http://www.jryanauthor.co.uk/
ISBN: 9781784624743
About the Author:
My grandmother said to me when I was eleven, “You’ll make your living
from writing one day.” At the time I was writing a series called ‘The
Guardians’, about a family of brothers who rescued people from close
shaves, and who bore an uncanny resemblance to the Thunderbirds clan. My
school mates used to beg me for the next episode in the series; I still
have the hard-backed, neatly titled exercise books tucked away in a
drawer.
My gran was right, but not in a way that either of us had imagined. I
sort of fell into writing ads and websites for the motor industry.
What’s not to like about driving a soon to be launched Jaguar round a
test track at terrifying speeds? But I knew this wasn’t ‘real’ writing.
Then I quit the advertising world and went to work as a teaching
assistant in ICT at St Peter’s High School, Gloucester. As I got to know
the teenagers I worked with, I was blown away by their courage in very
difficult situations. There were some who were in foster care, some who
were caring for their own single parent and others who had lost
siblings. Yet even though these young people had been dealt such a bad
hand, they got on with their lives, and their mates really looked out
for them.
It was these twin themes of courage when something is deeply wrong
with your life, and looking out for your mates, that inspired the
MISSING DAD series. These amazing teenagers should be celebrated!
