Conway, Simon 1967-

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Conway, Simon 1967-

PERSONAL:

Born 1967, in Sacramento, CA; married; children: two. Education: Attended the University of Edinburgh.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Scotland. Agent—Annette Green Authors' Agency, 1 East Cliff Rd., Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN4 9AD, England.

CAREER:

Writer. Works for a humanitarian organization clearing minefields in Cambodia. Previously worked as bartender on the Lower East Side in New York City, on the road crew for the band Butthole Surfers, and as a postman, a blacksmith, and a private investigator. Military service: Served in British army in Scottish Highland regiment.

WRITINGS:

FICTION

Damaged, Canongate (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1998.

Rage, Hodder & Stoughton (London, England), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Although novelist Simon Conway was born in California, he was brought up in Thailand and Beirut, where, in 1976, he witnessed the Syrian invasion of Lebanon. He served in the British military, once faced a court martial but was eventually cleared, and went on to work as a postman, blacksmith, and private investigator before joining a humanitarian organization to clear minefields in Cambodia. In his first thriller, Damaged, the author tells the story of Calum Bean, who has lost a shipment of hashish when the drilling rig where he has hidden his contraband sinks in a North Sea storm. When the people who bankrolled his smuggling operation decide to seek revenge on Cal, his cousin Seb MacCoinneach, a renegade army officer, saves him. Unfortunately for Cal, Seb has some serious psychological issues concerning revenge against his father and the army, and competition with his dead brother. As a result, Seb hatches a nefarious plan to right the wrongs he has suffered, and Cal finds that he is facing more trouble than he ever wanted—including Seb's ruthless half-sister, Madelene.

In his second thriller, Rage, Conway presents Jonah Said, who narrates his own story as a United Nations (UN) military observer in a particularly devastated area of Iraq in 2003 prior to the U.S. invasion. When Jonah's driver stops at a bar to conduct some mysterious business, Jonah finds the driver in the bathroom with his throat slashed. The Russian, with whom Jonah and his driver were drinking, accuses Jonah of murdering the driver and decides to kidnap and torture Jonah. However, Jonah is saved from a beating—or worse—by a UN officer, who accompanies Jonah on his quest to find out what really happened and why. In the process, Jonah comes across a plot to assassinate Saddam Hussein's son Uday. As the story progresses, the reader learns through flashbacks about Jonah's vicious assault on the man who stole his wife, which is the reason that he took this disagreeable assignment in the first place.

A Kirkus Reviews contributor called Rage a "grim, kinetic thriller set against an unconventional and inspired backdrop." The reviewer added: "American readers may be surprised by this portrait of the war as a multinational tapestry of violent dysfunction." Writing on the Shots Web site, Calum Macleod noted that the author "mercifully avoids Army jargon in his prose," adding: "Instead he give us atmosphere, intrigue and one of the most impressive new political thrillers I've read in many a month."