Gus Peake should have kept his job as a transport manager and stayed at home, but an old family friendship draws him to the remote wastes of Northern Iraq and to a savage, forgotten war between Kurdish guerrillas and Saddam Hussein's military strength.
To the brutal, no-quarter combat Peake can bring the skills he has learned as a marksman. But he has never before fired a shot in anger, and if he is to survive he must turn the marksmanship, hard-learned on the shooting range, into a killing weapon. There is no room for mistakes on the field of battle and he must quickly learn to deal out random death at long distance, and help the guerrillas to reach their goal, the city of Kirkuk, the old capital of the Kurdish people.
From Baghdad, Iraq sends Major Karim Aziz, who travels with the reputation of being the most dedicated and professional sniper in Saddam's army. For both men their duel, from which only one can walk away, becomes an obsession. And it will take only one shot, echoing in the mountains and valleys, to settle the score . . .
'Holding the Zero' is thriller-writing at its finest. A masterly combination of fast-paced action, nail-biting tension and touching pathos.
