The Twentieth Man

In September 1972, journalist Anna Rosen takes an early morning phone call from her boss at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, telling her about two bombings in Sydney's busy central business district. It's the worst terrorist attack in the country's history and Anna has no doubt which group is responsible for the carnage. She has been investigating the role of alleged war criminals in the globally active Ustasha movement. High in the Austrian Alps, Marin Katich is one of 20 would-be revolutionaries who slip stealthily over the border into Yugoslavia on a mission planned and funded in Australia. It will have devastating consequences for all involved. Soon the arrival in Australia of Yugoslavia's prime minister will trigger the next move in a deadly international struggle. This brilliantly compelling thriller takes us from the savage mountains of Yugoslavia to Canberra's brutal yet covert power struggles.

Tony Jones is a former Australian broadcasting foreign correspondent, for a time in London and later in Washington. Inter alia, he covered the war crimes in Bosnia. The Twentieth Man is his first novel.