Sarah Sultoon – The Shot @OrendaBooks @SultoonSarah #TheShot

I am so excited to be part of the tour for The Shot by Sarah Sultoon on behalf of Anne Cater and Orenda Books. Massive thanks for the gifted copy of this book. I loved it so much I bought a signed copy too.

An aspiring TV journalist faces a shattering moral dilemma and the prospect of losing her career and her life, when she joins an impetuous photographer in the Middle East. A shocking, searingly authentic thriller by award-winning ex-CNN news executive Sarah Sultoon.
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…

The Shot is a novel that is raw, intense and thought provoking. Her previous book was more than amazing and I have been looking forward to what she would bring next.

She has written from her experiences of working in newsrooms all over the world to bring a book that hides nothing. Her skill in the ability to grab you from the very first pag e and draw you into the world she has created is second to none.

The events of today make this book such a relevant read. The war in Ukraine is reported on every single day. The reporters who willingly enter the war torn countries in order to let the world know exactly what is happening should be respected for their actions. The biggest issue is, not many people even think about the risks the news crews take and just expect it. The Shot successfully lays bare the difficult and sometimes horrifying situations these journalists can experience.

We meet Sami, just beginning her career as a reporter. She has a passion for everything connected to her work and is impatiently waiting for her chance to be able to get out there and find her own stories to show the world.

When Sami is given an opportunity to go to Afghanistan with Kris, a very well known and respected war photographer, to work, she is so happy to get this chance. Kris is almost the total opposite to Sami. He is experienced, tired of it all and even struggles with his family, as he discovers after being injured while working and having to return home.

They arrive in Afghanistan  and as they work Sami begins to realise that no matter how prepared she thought she was, the reality is she could never be prepared for what she sees there. The fact that the author has experienced this type of work is reflected in the authenticity and realism that she writes with throughout this book.

Sarah Sultoon has balanced the action in the story just right. It never feels overly graphic but enough to make the reader think about the victims and the way they respond to the danger surrounding them and their lives. I found myself empathising so much I was imagining myself in their positions with my children and what I would have done.

We see Sami and Kris witness things that none of us could say how we would react on their places. These are events that raise such conflict and make this story such a deep,thought provoking and gritty experience for the reader. Another masterpiece from Sarah Sultoon and Orenda Books that will stay with me forever, I’m sure.

Author Bio

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 …