Baron Franklyn Must Die

Susan understood, in this moment, that the Baron had already won. Honest people had to resort to criminal acts to stop him. They were bent and warped into his image, made impotent by their own ugly, unrecognisable reflections. Regardless of what happened next – if he was arrested unharmed, if a record of her parents’ murderer was found buried in his archives, if all the moles were rounded up and Interpol left clean of corruption, if all she wanted came true – they had lost entirely, only scraps left to play for. Even worse was that Franklyn didn’t care. He had never cared about destroying Interpol, the institution, the symbol. To him, they were just yet another hurdle to overcome on the way to greater profitability. A crime thriller in a future sci-fi setting, Baron Franklyn Must Die is an intense, complex and highly readable mirror of our time. Against a backdrop of post-war desperation and recession, Baron Franklyn will stop at nothing to make more money. Pushing an experimental new drug with a street name of “Butterfly”, he has remained one step ahead of the authorities for far too long, entire societies having collapsed from addiction. Governments are getting restless and are threatening to do silly things if he isn’t stopped. The International Police are getting the blame. Standing on the edge of oblivion in an organisation riddled with moles and corruption, the Director of the Interpol’s Earth Division has no choice but to put his faith in two Agents barely out the Academy. To succeed where so many have failed, Agents Susan Myers and James Banahan will have to compete with rival drug lords, greedy corporations, political knee-jerk reaction and a monomaniac, murderous vigilante known only as “Weston”, who has a strange modus operandi that he seems unable to deviate from and access to hardware more advanced than the military. They also have their own past histories and each other to contend with if they want to stop Franklyn and bring him in alive, when most want him dead. Their investigation will take them across a galaxy of harrowing contrast, as they attempt to piece together the clues and form a plan to beat the infamous drug lord once and for all. Individual fortunes must rise. Entire planets must fall. Baron Franklyn Must Die.