A bitter, angry mechanic sits in an old Ford Escort parked in the central bus terminal during evening rush hour, knowing he's about to die in the next few minutes. Devastated by what's happened to his young family in his home town, Nadesan doesn't want anyone living in the capital city to ever feel safe again. A local traffic policeman angrily raps on the car window, gesturing at him to move the vehicle. What happens next finds him running for his life across the city pursued by a para-military hit-squad headed by a dangerous ex-soldier. Ordered to find and kill the men responsible for setting off car bombs across the country, Tilak's military training makes him very good at doing his job, yet he grapples with hate that he loves it so much. In the nearby general hospital, a compassionate and dedicated doctor struggles to deal with the pain and suffering caused by these terrible explosions. Could she be the one to bridge the gap between these two men ... but will it be enough for them to change their ways? Three very different people, their stories winding around each other like strands of barbed wire through the tragedy of a vicious civil war, by the choices they make in their life.
Roderic Grigson was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka where he was educated and lived till he was twenty-one. Rod's family were Burghers, descendants of the Portuguese, Dutch and British colonials who ruled the island nation for 450 years. With no prospects in the former British colony of Ceylon that had become a socialist state run by Sinhalese nationals, he left the country of his birth with a few dollars in his pocket and entered the United States on a tourist visa. He found work at the United Nations Headquarters in New York where he worked for the next twelve years. After studying information technology at New York University, he volunteered and joined the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces in Egypt and Lebanon, serving on the Suez Canal during the signing of the Israel Egypt Peace Accord and in South Lebanon and Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War. After spending two years in the field, Rod came back to New York in 1980 and joined the UN Technological Innovations team. He spent the next six years helping develop and implementing office information systems in six languages in UN regional offices around the world. Rod migrated with his wife to Australia in 1986 where he became a senior executive for a global IT company with responsibilities across the Asia Pacific region. In 2012, after choosing to retire early from corporate life, Rod completed a 6-month Creative Writing course and began writing his first novel. This book, 'The Sullen Hills', is Rod's third book. His first book 'Sacred Tears' was released in 2014 and his second, 'After the Flames', in 2017.
