I’m sharing an excerpt from Deadline by Erkut Sogut. Read on to find out more about this crime thriller…

The plot:

As transfer deadline day looms, Ander Anaia is about to make the deal of a lifetime. All that stands in his way is a rival agent. Or so he thinks.

The Table, a secret cabal of super agents involved in ‘off-pitch’ criminal activites, have other ideas. And they’ve kidnapped his daughter Joska as collateral.

David Miller is about to make his first serious deal. A deal that would bring Ander’s world crashing down around him. Now Ander must do everything in his power to stop him. Or risk losing his daughter – and the deal.

In this exhilarating debut novel, Erkut Sogut — one of football’s most influential agents, with clients including Mesut Ozil — uses his own experiences to lift the lid on the murky world of football agenting.

Excerpt:

She could no longer see the driver but could feel the car still winding as it rose. She knew these hills, had spent time here with her father as a kid, knew the narrow lanes that could barely take two cars, let alone the vast array of haulage vehicles and tourist coaches full of hikers that seemed to always be clogging up the road. The driver would be distracted by the road, focusing on not being pushed over the crash barrier that was all that was stopping them from careening into the valley below.

She opened up her messaging app and pulled up her dad’s chat. She typed quickly.

SOS need help emergency

And then shared her live location. The link would work for an hour, as long as her battery lasted out. Now she just had to wait. Her dad would see the text. He was away, but he could call the police. Or maybe he’d call up some of his old friends. The ones who had provided security for the family for a while. The ones she had learned not to ask about their pasts.

The car slowed and pulled over. Joska wedged the phone in the gap between the car seats and closed her eyes, slowing her breath, relaxing her body as much as possible.

When the car was at a standstill, Joska heard the driver unclip his seatbelt and open the door, the soft ping of the seatbelt alarm bleating rhythmically as she followed the sound of his shoes crunching on the dirt road towards the back of the car.

She maintained a steady breath. They must have arrived at wherever they were going. She was hopefully about to get a bit more information on where she was. More importantly why she was there.

The door by Joska’s head clunked open and without a word, the driver placed both hands on her shoulders and pulled her upright. He maintained his silence, though avoided looking at her, his eyes were fixed to the seat where she’d just laid her head. His hands swept over the seat fabric until he found what he was looking for. He grasped the phone and looked at her. He was smiling. His eyes were not full of the hatred Joska expected, but pity.

“Bad choice, girl.” He moved over to the side of the road and stopped for a moment, his eyes scanning the horizon. He looked around him, checking for any signs of movement, any signs someone might be watching. The last thing he needed was some backwater farmer acting as a witness. Satisfied, he cocked his arm back and threw the phone as far as he could out into the valley below.

The man turned, closed the rear door and moved round to the driver’s side. He slumped into his chair, closed the door, and moved off again up the mountain.

Excerpt used with the prior permission of the publisher.

Find out more here.