On Ukraine’s frontline, a journalist rescues a girl from an atrocity and suspects that a fellow volunteer is involved. When a soldier offers him the power to make things right, he must choose between justice and vengeance. A powerful literary thriller drawn from first-hand experience.
‘Superbly handled’ The Times
‘Utterly compelling’ Eve Smith
‘Hardisty is a fine writer’ Lee Child
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On Ukraine’s frontline, a journalist rescues a young girl from the aftermath of an atrocity and becomes convinced one of his fellow volunteers is responsible. As Russian forces close in, a soldier offers him a terrible means of securing justice. Drawn from first-hand experience, The Kill Machine is a searing, morally complex thriller about war, vengeance and the point of no return.
A journalist covering the war in Ukraine accompanies a group of humanitarian volunteers to the frontline. In a town being crushed by the Russian advance, he discovers the aftermath of an atrocity – and rescues a young girl he believes may have seen everything.
One of the volunteers, he is certain, is responsible.
With Russian troops closing in and suspicion turning inward, he must keep the child alive, expose the man he believes committed the crime, and find some form of justice in a war that has stripped away every rule.
But the atrocity changes him. As he struggles to write honestly about what he has seen, and to understand the limits of love and evil, he befriends a young soldier in the kill zone, who offers him a Faustian pact: the power to make things right, if he is prepared to cross a line from which there may be no return.
Drawn from first-hand experience reporting on the war in Ukraine, The Kill Machine follows a journalist to the limits of justice, love and vengeance – and asks what is left of a man when he has gone beyond them.
For readers who love Sebastian Faulks and The Cellist of Sarajevo.
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Praise for Paul E. Hardisty
‘A remarkably well-written, sophisticated novel’ Literary Review
'Searing … at times achieves the level of genuine poetry' Publishers Weekly STARRED review