This is a story about Marina Peters, whose grandparents, Vlad and Marina Petrov, emigrated to England from Russia in the 1930s. She is a likeable and quietly ambitious single young woman working in the Communications Department of the Royal Navy’s Portsmouth Base.
Nikolai Aldanov is a handsome 35-year old widower and a Lieutenant in the Russian Navy who has been corresponding with Marina through an online dating site. The pair have been sharing details of their lives, common interests and histories. But when his ship visits Portsmouth and Marina arranges to meet her Russian Lieutenant in person, she has no inkling of the unexpected consequences of her date, as she is introduced into the ruthless world of international espionage
This is a first novel by a former journalist and broadcaster, Peter Marshall. Since his retirement in 2002, he has written or edited a dozen books on subjects including satellite communications, space flight, international travel plus two biographies. But he explains that after a career in the world of news and information he often thought about trying his hand at fiction!
Peter said: “It was the Salisbury novichok incident which focused my mind on a story bringing together Russian spies and my past experiences in both journalism and the Royal Navy – I also served as an RNVR officer in the 1960’s. Once I started writing, I found it was a really compulsive activity to create my own narrative. One chapter quickly led to another and before long I had 50,000-plus words – without knowing quite how it would end! Then after completing it with a dramatic finish, and finding a publisher, I have now embarked on writing a sequel involving some of the same characters.
“I suppose words have always been my fascination from my early days as a reporter with local and national newspapers, and then ten years with BBC News. I moved into international TV news with a subsidiary of the BBC and Reuters and became involved in developing the use of satellite communications for global news coverage and distribution. This took me to the United States, where I was involved in satellite broadcasting until my retirement when I moved back to the UK and my native West of England.”
Peter was elected as Chairman of the Royal Television Society in 1986; and during his years in America he became President of the Society of Satellite Professionals.
“The Russian Lieutenant” is available from www.amazon.co.uk as a paperback or e-book.
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