Perfect Night

  1. Perfect Night
  2. by Peter Grimsdale

Peter Grimsdale can tell a convincing story with writing that is cliche-free and utterly enthralling. It begins in 1995, when budding TV documentary director Nick Roker is sent to troubled Sri Lanka, where he has a passionate affair with the journalist he is working with. A day later he sees her killed in a huge explosion in which he is seriously injured. Devastated by the experience, Roker spends the next 10 years working in a London film archive, where he accidentally discovers that a famous terrorist believed to have died in the 1980s was the same man he interviewed in Sri Lanka in 1995. This is information certain ruthless agencies do not want revealed, and Nick, trying to gather information, becomes a desperate fugitive. It's an entirely plausible tale, which remains riveting despite its intriguing turns and switchbacks. The plot inevitably takes us back to Sri Lanka where we learn the answers to all questions, including some we didn't know we were asking.

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