I’m thrilled to welcome you today to my stop on the blog tour for stunningly powerful and emotive thriller The Shot by Sarah Sultoon. Thank you to Anne Cater and Orenda Books for giving me the opportunity to read and review this outstanding book.
About the book:
Samira is an up-and-coming TV journalist, working the nightshift at a major news channel and yearning for greater things. So when she’s offered a trip to the Middle East, with Kris, the station’s brilliant but impetuous star photographer, she leaps at the chance
In the field together, Sami and Kris feel invincible, shining a light into the darkest of corners … except the newsroom, and the rest of the world, doesn’t seem to care as much as they do. Until Kris takes the photograph. With a single image of young Sudanese mother, injured in a raid on her camp, Sami and the genocide in Darfur are catapulted into the limelight. But everything is not as it seems, and the shots taken by Kris reveal something deeper and much darker … something that puts not only their careers but their lives in mortal danger.
Sarah Sultoon brings all her experience as a CNN news executive to bear on this shocking, searingly authentic thriller, which asks immense questions about the world we live in.
You’ll never look at a news report in the same way again…
About the author:
Sarah Sultoon is a journalist and writer whose work as an international news executive at CNN has taken her all over the world, from the seats of power in both Westminster and Washington to the frontlines of Iraq and Afghanistan. She has extensive experience in conflict zones, winning three Peabody awards for her work on the war in Syria, an Emmy for her contribution to the coverage of Europe’s migrant crisis in 2015, and a number of Royal Television Society gongs.
As passionate about fiction as nonfiction, she recently completed a Masters of Studies in Creative Writing at the University of Cambridge, adding to an undergraduate language degree in French and Spanish, and Masters of Philosophy in History, Film and Television.
When not reading or writing she can usually be found somewhere outside, either running, swimming or throwing a ball for her three children and dog while she imagines what might happen if…
Her debut thriller The Source is currently in production with Lime Pictures, and was a Capital Crime Book Club pick and a number one bestseller on Kindle.
My Review:
The Shot is the stunning new thriller by former CNN international news executive Sarah Sultoon. It’s a devastatingly powerful and thought provoking read that had me gripped from beginning to end. Finding the right words to do this incredible book justice is not going to be easy, especially as, just like the author’s debut novel, it evoked such an intense emotional response in me due to the horrific and heart rending nature of the subject matter.
From its powerful opening prologue right through to its heart stopping final pages, The Shot is a book that will stop you in your tracks, taking you so far outside your comfort zone that you won’t know what’s hit you. Devastating and brutally honest, this is an earth shattering and moving thriller that will stay with you long after the final page has been turned. Scarily relevant to the world we’re living in today, with the threat of war and terror all around us, The Shot gives the reader an inside view of exactly what it’s like to report the news as it happens from within an active war zone.
Samira is an up and coming TV journalist who is working the night shift but yearning for greater things. So when she’s offered the opportunity of a lifetime, to work in the Middle East with impetuous star photographer, Kris, Samira jumps at the chance. Together the pair feel invincible, shining a light into even the darkest corners. But the world doesn’t seem to care about what is happening as much as they do. Until, that is, Kris captures a moment in time that will make the world sit up and take notice…
Soon Samira and the genocide in Darfur are thrust under the spotlight, but not everything is as it seems, with the shots Kris has taken revealing something much darker than they could ever have imagined. The pair now find not only their careers but also their lives are in peril as the story races towards a terrifying and heart stopping denouement.
Sarah Sultoon reveals the complex and intricate details of what it can take to be a war correspondent, at the same time as delivering a taut, chilling thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. Her writing is sharp and the storyline dark and unsettling, twisting this way and that in a tale that is as authentic as it is exciting. I found myself completely invested in the characters lives, their inner voices clear and strong as I was swept up in the pain and emotion of it all.
The predicament Samira and Kris find themselves in had me on the edge of my seat throughout and gave me real food for thought. It’s very easy to sit at home watching news reports or seeing pictures of what is happening in the middle of a war zone, but The Shot brings the brave men and women, those who run towards danger when most of us would run the other way, vividly to life as Sarah Sultoon draws from her own experience as a CNN executive to deliver a powerful and intense thriller that brings the horrors of war so realistically to life that you can almost taste the fear.
I don’t even have the words to describe just how stunning this beautiful and hard hitting novel is and I honestly can’t recommend The Shot highly enough. Written with integrity and a raw honesty that takes your breath away, it is a timely, powerful and thought provoking read that will stay with you long after the final page has been turned. Sarah Sultoon is a hugely talented author and I can’t wait to read whatever she comes up with next.
The Shot by Sarah Sultoon is available to purchase now:
Check out what these other wonderful bloggers have to say about this book:
Cal Turner Reviews 
Thanks for the blog tour support x
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