Win copies of new thriller Curse the Day by North East writer Judith O'Reilly

We have three copies of the book to give away

Judith, who lives in Durham City, is a Westminster journalist turned Sunday Times bestselling author, and her new novel Curse the Day sees the return of damaged hero and spy-to-hire Michael North.

Instead of coronavirus threatening the future of humanity, however, computers and killer robots have taken centre stage in this year’s big tech thriller.

In Curse the Day, scientist Toby Hawke is due to unveil an astonishing scientific breakthrough. His Artificial Intelligence system has reached consciousness, making Hawke the leading light in his field.

But when terrorists storm the gala launch of the AI system, they don't just leave chaos and corpses in their wake. They seize Hawke's masterwork, sparking a chain reaction of explosive events which could end the world as we know it.

Ex-assassin Michael North must find the killers and recover the AI. But he can't do it alone.

Hawke's wife, Esme, and teenage Geordie hacker, Fangfang, have their own reasons to help complete North's mission - and together they unravel a dark and deadly conspiracy which stretches right to the top of the British elite.

Judith said: “I’m hoping the book offers some pure Bond-style escapism from the horror show that is coronavirus. Who doesn’t need some distraction from today’s reality? I know I do.

“Curse the Day has an all action hero who could die at any second battling to save the day, and the world, from bad guys and a super intelligent computer.

“Lots of people are saying it’s difficult to concentrate on anything except the crisis we’re in. But this is the kind of page-turner which should make it a lot easier.”

Curse the Day follows O’Reilly’s first foray into crime with her widely acclaimed debut thriller Killing State which Lee Child described as “terrific” and Andy McNab described as “a gritty, action-packed, page-turner”.

Killing State, which was partly set in Newcastle, was a Sunday Times crime club pick and a Mail on Sunday Thriller of the Week.

Judith became well-known after she turned a blog about her family’s move from London to the North East into a book called Wife in the North.

It became an international bestseller and BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week. She also wrote The Year of Doing Good, a springboard for her Northumberland fundraising campaign, The Jam Jar Army.

A former political producer with BBC 2's Newsnight and ITN's Channel 4 News and The Sunday Times journalist, Judith was born and grew up in Leeds before going on to study politics at Durham University.

*Curse The Day by Judith O’Reilly, which is out now, is published by Head of Zeus www.headofzeus.com

WIN

We’ve got three copies of Curse the Day to give away. To be in with a chance of winning, answer this question: what’s the name of the main character in Curse the Day?

A:: Michael North

B:: Michael West

C:: Michael South

Email your answer, along with your postal address, to [email protected] by April 17. Usual JPI Media competition rules apply.