‘Cub reporter Jonny Murphy is in Buenos Aires interviewing families of victims of Argentina’s Dirty War, when a headless torso has washed up on a city beach, thrusting him into a shocking investigation…‘
– Death Flight
[ About Death Flight ]
Argentina. 1998. Human remains are found on a beach on the outskirts of Buenos Aires – a gruesome echo of when the tide brought home dozens of mutilated bodies thrown from planes during Argentina’s Dirty War. Flights of death, with passengers known as the Disappeared.
International Tribune reporter Jonny Murphy is in Buenos Aires interviewing families of the missing, desperate to keep their memory alive, when the corpse turns up. His investigations with his companion, freelance photographer Paloma Glenn, have barely started when Argentina’s simmering financial crisis explodes around them.
As the fabric of society starts to disintegrate and Argentine cities burn around them, Jonny and Paloma are suddenly thrust centre stage, fighting to secure both their jobs and their livelihoods.
But Jonny is also fighting something else, an echo from his own past that he’ll never shake, and as it catches up with him and Paloma, he must make choices that will endanger everything he knows…
[ My Review ]
Death Flight by Sarah Sultoon will be published on February 29th with Orenda Books and is described as ‘an electrifying and disturbing political thriller’.
The second book in this series featuring young investigative reporter Jonny Murphy, Death Flight is set in Argentina and delves into the Dirty War, a war of oppression that destroyed the country from1976 to1983. In 1998 Jonny Murphy is with freelance photographer Paloma Glenn in Buenos Aires doing a piece for the International Tribune when a female mutilated partial body is washed up on a beach. The damage to the body is reminiscent of the tortuous actions by the military junta during the Dirty War but it makes no sense to Jonny and Paloma as to why this should be happening again now. The country is in the throes of a financial crisis with the economy very unstable. Jonny and Paloma are in the thick of what is going on and are looking to get a big break reporting on the ground on the big picture of a country on the brink of collapse.
The story of The Disappeared has been long embedded in the annals of Argentinian history books. It is estimated that up to 30,000 people vanished without trace, arrested and tortured as dissidents. Many were students, young idealists who opposed the government of the time. Alongside academics, artists and many more, these members of the population were never seen again. It is said that the babies of pregnant women were removed and put up for adoption, in the hope of preventing future children being educated and encouraged to speak out against the junta.
The mothers of these disappeared marched for action against this barbaric silencing and for the release of their children and grandchildren. These women took their lives in their hands and were known as the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo. Jonny meets these women to hear their stories and to put names to those who vanished without a trace. The Death Flights are a notorious and shameful part of Argentina’s history, when tortured and still breathing prisoners were flown out to sea and dumped in the ocean. Some washed up, like the body discovered in 1998, others were left to the ocean.
Jonny and Paloma are perplexed as to what is happening but slowly start to gather information. Jonny is young and reckless. He has his own personal history that he guards close to his chest, but his past has made him more determined to find justice for others when he can. When an unexpected piece of information is made available to him, the layers begin to fold back revealing a very rotten core.
Jonny Murphy’s life is in danger. Unable to trust anyone, he fears that the truth will be buried but is willing to risk his life to tell the world the truth, one of such political importance, its ripple effects would resound for years. As the story unfolds around them, Jonny and Paloma’s lives become intertwined in the most unexpected way. Paloma is tough and street smart. She has ambition to be an established photographer but knows that she also needs Jonny to help her unravel a bigger mystery.
Death Flight provides a fascinating and disconcerting window into Argentinian history that I knew very little about. The plot is complex with the brashness of youth evident in Jonny Murphy’s character. When reading it, one can’t help but wonder why he’s doing a certain thing and then you have that moment of, of course! His decisions are often imprudent, but it is this characteristic that drives the plot on and adds a level of excitement and intensity to the tale.
Challenging, educational and shocking, Death Flight is a fast-paced and tense political thriller with its roots in facts that is sure to disturb and unsettle every reader.
[ Bio ]
Sarah Sultoon is a journalist and writer, whose work as an international newsexecutive at CNN has taken her all over the world, from the seats of power in both Westminster and Washington to the frontlines of Iraq and Afghanistan. She has extensive experience in conflict zones, winning three Peabody awards for her work on the war in Syria, an Emmy for her contribution to the coverage of Europe’s migrant crisis in 2015, and a number of Royal Television Society gongs.
When not reading or writing she can usually be found somewhere outside, either running, swimming or throwing a ball for her three children and dog while she imagines what might happen if… Her debut thriller The Source is currently in production with Lime Pictures, and was a Capital Crime Book Club pick and a number one bestseller on Kindle. The Shot (2022) and Dirt (2023) followed, with Death Flight published in 2024.
X ~ @SultoonSarah
