The Fulcrum Files

The young, charismatic Ben Clayton was one of Britain's brightest boxing prospects, until the day he slammed a left hook into a fragile chin. Sickened by the consequences he turned away from the ring, and found solace in the arms of the beautiful Lucy Kirk. On the 7th March 1936, after almost two decades of peace in Europe, Hitler ordered the Nazi war machine into the Rhineland. It was a direct challenge to Britain and France. Still unnerved by the slaughter of the Great War, the politicians cowered; the French Army stayed in its barracks and the aristocratic British elite just watched from their country retreats. History was balanced on a knife edge, and MI5's Fleming White knew that if the Nazi challenge was ignored, Hitler's grip on power would harden like setting steel. The result would be a bigger, bloodier war for which Britain was completely unprepared. It was an outcome that White would do anything to avoid. And that included blackmailing his godson. The ruthless spymaster pushed his pawns around the board and soon just one man could make the difference between war and peace, victory or defeat. And that man was Ben Clayton. Thrown into the maelstrom of plot and counter-plot, into a world of mysteries, murder, spies and traitors, Ben must battle not just to survive, but to protect all that he loved and held most dear - Lucy.

About the Author :
Mark Chisnell grew up in a small town on the east coast of England. The town was dominated by the rise of the oil industry and the decline of shipbuilding and fishing. Mark has been a professional sportsman and also won awards as a broadcaster and for his non-fiction accounts of maritime adventure. He's written for some of the world's leading magazines and newspapers, including Esquire and the Guardian. One of his greatest personal achievements was hitch-hiking to Mount Everest base-camp in Tibet. In Trainers. Mark had thought he'd have a future as a marine engineer, that was until he picked up a copy of Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. The cover said it would change the way the reader felt about the world and it changed Mark's perception about his life and where he wanted to go. He learned that books can change people's lives and that he wanted to write one. He wanted to write many. Mark began by writing about the sport in which he won three world championships, and subsequently won plaudits and recognition for his adrenaline-fuelled and suspenseful accounts of round-the-world racing. When he moved to fiction, he used his experiences as a sportsman and his background in broadcasting and journalism to weave chart-topping tales filled with intrigue, danger, romance and characters that take the reader on an incredible page turning journey. Mark currently lives in Europe with his wife and son.