The Hound at his Heels by Alan Stone

The Hound at His Heels is a fast-paced, character-driven thriller. Klara Brandt, the main protagonist, is an attractive, successful and manipulative young woman living in New York. Her complex personality has been hardened – and to some extent damaged – by her experiences as a child bereft of her family in war-torn Germany. She’d go to the ends of the earth to find the man responsible for wiping out her family in reprisal for her father’s attempt on Hitler’s life.

The action starts in New York, moves briefly to London, then to Costa Rica and Brazil, and concludes back in New York. Along the way, Klara has to contend with the complexities of falling in love with a Hungarian butterfly collector.

About the author: Alan has written several short stories, but The Hound at His Heels is his first full-length novel. His writing has been influenced by some of the authors he's most enjoyed reading, including Larsson, Le Carré, Huxley, Koestler, Trenhaile, Rushdie, Snow and Kafka.

Alan's professional background is in the biological and medical sciences, and his work has taken him to many remote parts of the world. The novel is loosely based on his own experiences while travelling in the Amazon region which helps him to faithfully convey some colourful and unusual settings and to define the very diverse characters who appear.