Emma Anderson

Gayle Cranfield has dropped by to share with us her latest book, The Jasmine Tree.

Michael Reynolds, ex Royal Marine and SBS (special forces) has been deep undercover in the Russian Mafia for two years. He hates his assignment, but because his mother was Russian, he was called upon to infiltrate the organisation by MI5. Now called Mikel, he has been tasked by his mafia bosses with finding girls in Eastern Europe who are to be put to work in the sex industry in New Orleans with the empty promise of a better life in the USA.

Mikel meets Lilly Summers in a Mafia owned club and starts a relationship with her, but soon backs away when he realises he is getting in too deep and doesn't want Lilly to get involved in his current life or to be dragged into the organisation he works in. But Lilly starts working for Mikel's Mafia boss and his love for Lilly grows.

When Mikel is encouraged to go further undercover by his MI5 boss he finds himself in a battle between reality and the counterfeit life he has been leading, although when he finds out Lilly is not all she is supposed to be, that is where his troubles really start.

But Michael is troubled in other ways....what is in his nightmares and what is the significance of the large tattoo that covers his back?

Buy link: www.bookstrand.com/the-jasmine-tree

Now if that man's eyes on the front cover doesn't have you desperate to buy this book, the excerpt surely will.

Excerpt

Michael stood in front of his bathroom mirror, running his fingers through his hair.

When did he stop recognising his reflection? Apart from having a quick shave every other day, he hadn't really studied himself for a while. His forty-one year old weary, blue eyes looked back at him as he dragged his cheeks down and moved nearer to the mirror for a closer inspection.

The lines that were appearing around his eyes seemed to be getting deeper by the day. Dragging his fingers through his hair once again, he could just see the beginnings of grey coming through the dark brown. Where had that come from? He wondered if he could pull off the George Clooney look a few years down the line but decided he had a harder life than Mr Clooney so probably not. "I'm getting too old for this shit!" he said to himself in the mirror. "And talking to yourself Mikey-boy? That's not going to go down well at your next psyche-eval is it?"

Walking back into the main room of his pokey bedsit, he sat down on the edge of his bed and put his head in his hands and massaged his aching skull with his large callused fingers. God he missed being himself, he was tired of his counterfeit life, he just wanted to climb to the highest point in London and shout, "I am Michael Reynolds!"

He got off the bed and knelt on the hard wooden floorboards and picked up his mattress. Stretching deep into the middle of the underside, he reached and felt for the cut he had made in the soft furnishing and pulled out the envelope he was fishing for. Sitting back down on the floor he opened the flap and carefully laid the three photographs out in front of him.

Other Work

Gayle has two other books out, The Right Turn, and The New Dawn.

www.bookstrand.com/the-right-turn

www.bookstrand.com/the-new-dawn

Contact info

www.gaylecranfield.co.uk
www.facebook.com/therightturnbook
www.bookstrand.com/gayle-cranfield
Twitter @gaylecranfield