Series Blog Tour & Exclusive Excerpt:
More Heat Than The Sun Series
By John Wiltshire
Book 7: Enduring Night
Released Feb 19th
Releasing February 19th
The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. Nikolas has always liked art. You’d have thought that Ben and Nikolas would have learnt that their romantic holidays inevitably end up as disasters. A short break on the polar ice sees them trapped in a nightmare of murder and deceit. Neither of them, however, foresees the long-term impact that endless winter has on their relationship. They return with a metaphorical darkness that threatens everything they have created together. Desperate and fearing for Nikolas’s life, Ben makes a bargain with a surprising ally. For the first time, Nikolas meets an enemy more powerful than he is. But fortunately, not as sneaky…
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“Enduring Night”
(More Heat Than The Sun #7)
by John Wiltshire
Nikolas quirked his lips. He obviously realised Ben’s complaints were totally bogus. He was in a place of snow and ice, about to travel in a Hagglund over life-threatening terrain in the eerie midday polar darkness to a luxury snow experience. Ben was covering for his earlier enthusiastic, tourist lapse. He was SAS. SAS didn’t say wow about anything.
They discovered they weren’t the only guests being ferried to this remote hotel. They vaguely recognised the four other people as fellow passengers on the plane. They too had travelled in first class. One couple, a man and woman, seemed to be in their sixties. They were studying the vehicle, watching a young man on its roof who appeared to be polishing it, and chatting quietly to each other. English. The other two were younger. The woman looked vaguely familiar to Ben. She had a raw-boned beauty that didn’t need to be enhanced with artifice—high cheekbones, flawless natural skin and wide-set eyes. Ben wondered why no one had ever told her this. She’d gone the subterfuge route, her nose plastered and splinted, her eyes circled black. He felt a nudge to his ribs. “Stop staring.”
Ben snatched his gaze away. “Do you recognise her?”
“Yes.”
Ben turned surreptitiously so his back was to the woman and raised his brows enquiringly.
Nikolas smirked. “She was on the plane with us.”
He almost got another bitch-slap, but Ben was trying to save them for important transgressions.
The man with the familiar woman was older than she was, possibly Nikolas’s age. It was hard to tell. Ben didn’t think Nikolas gave the impression of a man only three birthdays away from being fifty. Considering Nikolas’s life and recreational habits, he’d aged well. Almost as if reading Ben’s mind, Nikolas fished for a cigarette and lit it, bending over slightly, cupping his hand around his lighter. The position showed off his ring, and he smirked again as he blew smoke in Ben’s face.
He’d given up so many times, made so many promises, that Ben almost accepted now that Nikolas would never stop smoking. He’d cut down. It was something.
“Hey, can I bum a light, buddy?”
Nikolas glanced over quizzically to find the young woman’s partner holding out a cigarette hopefully. He was American, judging by his accent, and was dressed in a quality suit. Tall as Nikolas and lean too, they seemed well matched.
He held out his hand when his cigarette was lit. “I’m Matt Burnside, and this is my wife, Mattie. Mattie Mayberry.”
He said that with an air of expectancy. Ben had already had his embarrassing moment with the wow so he made no indication whatsoever that he’d finally placed the woman. She was a singer—a successful recording artist. Emilia played her records incessantly.
Nikolas wouldn’t have known any musicians unless they were European and dead, so his ignorance wasn’t feigned at all.
The subtleties of the reception given to her introduction clearly didn’t escape Mattie Mayberry. She flicked a quick, unreadable look at her husband.
Celebrity nose job and a remote holiday to hide the recovery.
Ben introduced himself—James Lancaster.
It went against the grain. It went against many things, not the least that he had a hyphen and Nikolas a ring, but he’d reluctantly agreed—he couldn’t book into a hotel for a romantic holiday with another man as Ben Rider. Nikolas had complained it was very inconvenient having to pretend to be someone else. His annoyance being slightly less believable when he’d produced his new identity—Alexander Mikelovich. Peyton had created it for him as a joke. Alexander Mikelovich was a Russian businessman. He owned, apparently, most of the vodka factories in Russia.
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Book 8: His Fateful Heap of Days
Releasing February 26th
“Into his fateful heap of days the soul of man is cast.”
Only a few months from his fiftieth year, Nikolas is feeling a distinct wobble in his formidable certainties. Aleksey Primakov appears to have become irrelevant. All he needs, therefore, is to be dragged into an adventure with Devon’s answer to the three musketeers. How many times can he tell Ben and his moronic friends that a mutilated body buried on Dartmoor has nothing to do with them? But not only does this desecration slowly become their business, it cuts to the heart of the life they have created together. It’s just as well, perhaps, that generals never do actually retire…
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More Heat Than The Sun Series
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About John:
John Wiltshire is the pen name. The author was born in England, but she travelled widely whilst serving in the British Army, living in the States and Canada and Europe. She retired at the rank of Major, and finally settled in New Zealand.
To date the author has written 14 novels.
Connect with John:
http://johnwiltshire.co.nz
https://www.facebook.com/johnwiltshire.nz
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