VETERAN journalist and ABC broadcaster Tony Jones has released his debut novel.
A political thriller set in 1970s Australia and Yugoslavia, The Twentieth Man follows the exploits of a journalist seeking to unravel the mysteries of a global terror movement and its entanglement in Australian politics.
The novel re-imagines a relatively forgotten terrorism attack on Yugoslavian travel agencies in Sydney in late 1972. Those behind the attack were never found but the prime suspects were a group of Croatian extremists.
In this fast-paced tale, journalist Anna Rosen, who has been investigating the role of alleged war criminals in the globally active Ustasha movement, has no doubt who is responsible for the carnage.
And when Marin Katich, one of 20 would-be revolutionaries, slips into Yugoslavia on a mission planned and funded in Australia, there will be devastating consequences for all involved.
Two-and-a-half years earlier, Marin and Anna had been lovers at university, but his sudden and mysterious disappearance brought their relationship to an abrupt end. Now the Sydney bombings will draw their lives back together.
Author Jones joined ABC television program Four Corners as a reporter in 1985 and then went to Dateline at SBS in 1986. He subsequently was an ABC foreign correspondent, for a time in London and later in Washington.
Today he hosts Q&A on ABC TV on Monday nights.
- The Twentieth Man by Tony Jones, (Allen & Unwin), RRP $33.
