Leaving Owl Creek

Nick MacLean, heir to an old Australian farming family, is captured by mujahideen fighters while on a trek in the mountains of Kashmir. For the Mujahid, their commander, this captive is a nuisance—yet, having tasted the West while studying in London, he is drawn into conversation with the Australian. Nick comes to understand that, despite the distance between them, they share a common bond.

Waiting against hope to be ransomed, Nick is also shackled to profound memories— of his parents’ unrealistic expectations of him, and of his sister, Lilly, left solely responsible for a property now in drought and decline. Most of all he is haunted by his youthful friendship with Richard Connolly, the able son of a stockman, who watched with frustration as Nick denied himself the advantages of his birth.

About the Author

Sandy Gordon has written widely as an expert on security and intelligence. When he finished his last academic book in 2014, he vowed never to write another footnote. Instead, he embarked on the imaginative journey of crafting this first novel, A vital chronicle of pivotal changes in Australian society during the second half of the 20th century, a journey that is also paralleled by the increasingly intense clash between Western cultural and economic power and traditional Islam.

After completing a PhD at Cambridge, Sandy worked in the Office of National Assessments, and as Executive Director of the Asian Studies Council. More recently, he became Defence Fellow at the Australian National University, then head of intelligence in the Australian Federal Police. Later he lectured at various universities on South Asia and regional security.