HOLLY WATT chats with Paul Burke about THE HUNT AND THE KILL. Casey Benedict, don't give up the day job, darkness in fiction, the Arab Spring, #MeToo, prizes and why covid means Salman Rushdie won't be at your book launch.
THE HUNT AND THE KILLWhen acclaimed undercover journalist Casey Benedict is asked to interview a young woman with cystic fibrosis, the patient's doctor alerts her to the looming threat of antibiotic-resistant infections, tipping her off about a potential new wonder drug. If the rumours are true, this new antibiotic could save millions of lives, but no one wants to admit that the drug even exists.
As Casey investigates, she follows the trail from the Maldives to a game reserve in Zimbabwe, using her undercover skills to probe the truth and find out why the discovery of this new drug is being covered-up. When tragedy unexpectedly strikes, Casey suspects that someone is trying to silence her, but she is not prepared to let the story drop, no matter how much danger she - or those she loves most - are put in.
Holly Watt's first novel - To The Lions - won the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for the best thriller of the year in 2019. In 2020, her second book, The Dead Line, was named one of the Thrillers of the Year by The Times and the FT. The Casey Benedict series continues with The Hunt and The Kill, which will be published in July 2021. The Casey Benedict series has been optioned by the producer of The Night Manager and The Undoing, which starred Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant.
Before writing novels, Holly was a leading investigative journalist. She started her career at the Sunday Times, before moving to the Daily Telegraph. During six years at the Telegraph, she was the Whitehall Editor and jointly ran the investigations team. She then moved to work on the Guardian's investigations team.
Holly has been nominated for a wide range of journalism prizes, winning awards for her work on stories including MPs’ Expenses at the Telegraph and the Panama Papers at the Guardian.
She has reported from countries all around the globe, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Libya, Jordan and Lebanon. As well as flying around the world on everything from Lynx helicopters to Air Force One, Holly also worked as an undercover journalist.
She now spends most of her time in Devon.
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