#BlogTour Operation Jihadi Bride by John Carney with Clifford Thurlow

 Today it's a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour Operation Jihadi Bride by John Carney with Clifford Thurlow.

About the Author
John Carney is an Ex-British army soldier. He led the efforts of rescue of various women and their children from the ISIS Caliphate. His name is on the ISIS-Death list, and to protect his identity, his name and other names have been changed in the book. He has operated a multi-million pound private security set up by Colonel Tim Spicer. He has operated a close protection service in Iraq since 2011.

Co-writer Clifford Thurlow's recent books as a ghostwriter include the acclaimed Iraq memoir Making a Killing, the inside story of  a hired gun in Iraq, and Escape from Baghdad with Captain James Ashcroft. He has also written Fatwa Living with a Death Threat, for Jacky Trevane, which went on to sell 500,000 copies.

Follow John Carney on Twitter, on Goodreads, Buy Operation Jihadi Bride
Follow @ThurlowClifford on Twitter, Clifford Thurlow on Goodreads, on Amazon, Visit cliffordthurlow.com

About the book
Would you turn your back on a teenage Jihadi bride and her innocent children?

‘Jihad isn’t a war. It’s an objective. An aberration. If there are young women with children, lost boys… If they are trapped in that hell and we can get them out, don’t we have a duty to do so? Every person we can bring back is living proof that Islamic State is a failure.

Ex-British Army Soldier, John Carney, ran a close protection operation in Iraq for oil executives when he was asked by the family of a young Dutch woman to extract her from the collapsing Islamic State in Syria. Hearing first-hand of the shocking living hell of tricked naive young girls, many from the West, trapped, sexually abused and enslaved by ISIS, he knew only one thing – he had to get them out

Armed with AK-47s and 9mm Glocks, he launched a daring, dangerous and deadly operation to free as many as he could. With a small band of committed Kurdish freedom fighters, backed by humanitarian NGOs, and feeding intel to MI6, Carney and his men went behind enemy lines in the heart of the Syrian lead storm, risking their lives to deliver the women and their children to the authorities, to de-radicalization programmes and fair trials.

Gripping, shocking and thought-provoking, ‘Operation Jihadi Bride’ takes the complex issue of the Jihadi Brides head-on – a vital read for our troubled times.

Review
I can see this being a controversial read given the subject matter. It's a topic that divides opinions. Do we have a moral obligation to save Jihadi Brides and their children, especially if their origin country is our own?  Is the risk of them continuing on in their newly acquired holy task greater than showing them some humanity?

Let's get one thing clear. These are impressionable often vulnerable and young victims of radicalisation. They are groomed to feel as if they are part of something bigger, something sacred and all in the name of Allah. They are brainwashed into leaving family and friends. It's no different than a religious cult, but with more devastating consequences.

These girls and young women are drawn in with fantasy scenarios and pictures of appealing men - only to be confronted with living hell in reality. Rape, gang-rapes, held prisoner and forced to integrate into a culture that treats women like property to be hidden and discarded when no longer useful. Innocent children become part of this vicious cycle and are new recruits for the Jihadi.
What should we do? Leave them to rot and let them be drawn deeper into the well of hate or give them a second chance?

Carney comprehends that pretending they don't exist is not a solution. Instead we need to be addressing the reasons they are vulnerable to radicalisation and stepping in when we recognise it.

It's an interesting read, especially because this is a problem the Western world hasn't got a grip on, and because it is a divisive topic. Although it has the vibe of a story told in a battle voice narrative it is also infused with a strong sense of determination and hope.

Buy Operation Jihadi Bride at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Monoray; pub date 11 July 2019. Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour Severed by Peter Laws

Today it is an absolute pleasure to take part in the BlogTour Severed by Peter Laws. I have no idea why I haven't come across this author before, but I will be making a point to do so in future. It's an eclectic mixture of theology, faith, thriller and horror.

About the Author
Peter Laws is an ordained Baptist minister with a taste for the macabre. He regularly speaks and preaches at churches and events. He lives with his family in Bedfordshire.

Follow @revpeterlaws @AllisonandBusby
Visit peterlaws.co.uk
Buy Severed

About the book
During a communion service at a village church, the teenage son of a vicar brutally attacks his father with an axe. The horrified congregation watch the son escape and during a frantic police search rumours arise that the boy was involved in devil worship.

Professor Matt Hunter, an atheist ex-minister and expert on religion, is brought in to advise, yet he quickly suspects the church attack may have a far more complex cause. Meanwhile, a ten-year-old boy called Ever grows up in a small Christian cult. The group believe they are the only true humans left and that the world is filled with demons called Hollows, but they’re working on a bizarre ritual that will bring peace and paradise to the world. Soon, the worlds of Matt and Ever will collide in one awful, terrifying night where Matt is thrown into the frightening and murderous world of religious mania.

Review
I have no idea why I haven't come across this author before, but I will be making a point to do so in future.

Matt Hunter is a one-time man of God, who now likes to dabble in atheism instead. Now he spends his time dissecting his own feelings of faith and his knowledge of theology. He is also the go-to man for all things macabre and faintly godly or devilish in any way, which is how he ends up in the middle of an unusual attempted murder in an old church.

A teenage boy attacks the local vicar during a service all whilst mumbling a strange language. At the same time the reader is introduced to a young boy called Ever, who lives in a seemingly idyllic, albeit odd, small community of very religious people. His family. The question is what is their connection to the events in the church?

I think one of the most interesting aspects of Severed is the way the author unfurls the complexity of cult mentality. How is easy it is to be sucked into a theoretical concept, which to the objective outsider may seem completely absurd. I mean how many people, including really intelligent people I might add, do you think would fall for a money making oppressive religion based on the failed sci-fi stories of an ego-maniacal author who envisioned himself as a leader of the 'enlightened' members of the human race. Oh wait, yeh, my bad. Loads of people already have and are paying through the nose for the privilege.

A cult environment is bit like creating the perfect growth habitat for delusional thought fungi. They absorb the vulnerable, the rejected and the lost of our society, whilst the sharks at the top feed on their insecurities, fears and traumas.

This eclectic mixture of theology, faith, thriller and horror makes for a spectacular read. It bandies around the concepts of Christianity, religion, cults and atheism in a way that engages the reader in the narrative like a literary novel, despite the fact it is an action-packed horror read.

When you've read this book take a moment to read the author's note of acknowledgement - emotional and honest words on the thought process behind the story. In a way it says so much more about the story, the author and society, perhaps more than a mere read may.

Buy Severed at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Allison and Busby; pub date 24 Jan. 2019

Jesus Jackson by James Ryan Daley

Where to start?
This is the type of book I personally would have enjoyed and embraced in my teens. Specifically when I was going through my own questioning of belief, faith, religion and eventually the subject of atheism, at the age of fourteen.

It is actually quite clever the way Daley has incorporated the main plot into the mystery and tragedy surrounding the death of the main character's brother.

Jonathan is consumed by his death of his brother or more specifically how it happened. He is not only convinced it was a homicide, he is also determined to prove it.

The reader meets fourteen year old Jonathan on day of his brothers unfortunate death. He happens upon a strange figure playing imaginary football with himself. The person calls himself Jesus Jackson, and apart from his John Travolta Saturday Night Fever get-up, he looks the part of Jesus. All long scraggly hair, unkempt beard and buckets full of wisdom.

One automatically assumes he is a figment of the young boys imagination. An apparition brought on by the trauma, the stress and the confusion of the tragic events. Is it a hallucination or is this a divine message? Perhaps the man himself or a sidekick  promising a 100% satisfaction guaranteed deal. The restoration of faith.

Now how exactly does one go about doing that with somebody who does not believe in the existence of any type of god? That is the crux of the plot, and a damn fine one it is.

It isn't about  proving or disproving the existence of anything or anyone. I will leave you to find out exactly what Jonathan finds out about himself and what he believes in.

This is an excellent read, one I recommend for both younger and older readers. It challenges the wee grey cells and perhaps help to clarify the murky waters of belief and faith.
I received a copy of this book via Netgalley.