User:J.Ashleyhay/Fair Game: The Steps of Odessa by James Watson

Watson, James Author of several novels for Young Adults. These include The Freedom Tree, set during the Spanish Civil War and Talking in Whispers centring on the military takeover of power in Chile in 1973. This novel won The Other Word for Teen Fiction, was Highly Commended in the Carnegie Awards and was winner of the Buxtehuder Bulle Prize for Teen Fiction. His Justice of the Dagger was a Waterstone' Book of the Month. Watson's latest book is set in troubled Ukraine. Fair Game: The Steps of Odessa (Spire Publishing, ISBN 1-897312-72-5, paperback, £7.99) is a human rights thriller with a strongly feminist theme: Natasha has the talent and determination to be selected for her nation's Under-19 soccer team, but her ambitions are put at risk by revelations of government corruption by her father, campaigning journalist Victor Kaltsov. Against the odds, Natash struggles to assert her talents. Monika enters her life, at first it would seem, a rescuing angel; but who is she really, and what connection has she with Victor's enemies? The story opens with a kidnap in winter snow in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine and moves to a dramatic climax on the Steps of Odessa, made famous by the Russian director Sergei Eisenstein in his masterpiece, The Battleship Potemkin. The book is dedicated to a real-life Ukrainian journalist, Giya Gongadze, murdered on 16 September, 2000. James Watson has also written plays for radio and for schools production (see Banned! Tom Paine, This Was Your Life and Gotcha! Wars-R-Us, published by CollinsEdducational). Other books by the author are: Sign of the Swallow, The Bull Leapers, Legion of the White Tiger, Where Nobody Sees, Make Your Move and Other Stories, No Surrender, Ticket to Prague and The Ghosts of Izieu. For further information, see James Watson's website, www.Watsonworks.co.uk.