Product Description

Gus Peake should have kept his job and stayed at home, but an old family debt of friendship draws him to the remote wastes of Northern Iraq and to a savage forgotten war between Kurdish guerillas and Saddam Hussein's military strength.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31775 in Books
• Published on: 2001-02-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 524 pages

From the Publisher
The breathtaking new novel from the author of A Line in the Sand.

From the Back Cover
Gus Peake should have kept his job and stayed at home, but an old family debt of friendship draws him to the remote wastes of Northern Iraq and to a savage forgotten war between Kurdish guerillas and Saddam Hussein's military strength.

To the brutal, no-quarter combat, Peake can bring the skills he has learned as a marksman. But 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 guerillas to reach their goal, the city of Kirkuk, the old capital of the Kurdish people.

From Baghdad, Iraq sends Major Karim Aziz, 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 only take one shot, echoing in the mountains and valleys, to settle the score...

About the Author
Once a reporter for Independent Television News, Gerald Seymour has lived in the West Country for several years. His bestselling novels include Harry’s Game, The Glory Boys, Field of Blood, Killing Ground, A Line in the Sand, Holding the Zero, The Untouchable, Traitor’s Kiss, The Unknown Soldier, and Rat Run.

Customer Reviews

For Meda
Several years ago, David Robbins authored a novel, WAR OF THE RATS, the plot of which revolved around the duel between two snipers, a Soviet and a German, amidst the WWII Stalingrad battlefield. HOLDING THE ZERO, by Gerald Seymour, is at least equal, if not better, in portraying the sniper's esoteric art.

It's a couple of years before Operation Iraqi Freedom, and the British government receives word of a sighting of one of Her Majesty's subjects roaming northern Iraq with a bloody big sniper rifle and a band of Kurdish fighters led by a charismatic peasant girl, Meda. The witness even provides a name, Augustus Henderson Peake. Captain Willet of the Ministry of Defense is tasked, along with a representative from the Security Service, to investigate Peake and report on his mind set, motivation and training. How much trouble can Peake cause for Her Majesty's government? From the very beginning, Willet knows that Peake has no military background, is the transport manager in an English haulage firm, and is a civilian, award-winning, target shooter. Willet's initial assessment is that Peake will not survive whatever foolish venture in which he's involved himself.

In the meantime, Peake is Meda's secret weapon as her growing band of Kurds advances out of its mountain fastness and wins a series of increasingly ambitious skirmishes with Saddam Hussein's army. The ultimate goal is to take Kirkuk, headquarters of the Iraqi Fith Army and a city sacred to the Kurdish nationalists. The Iraqi Army sends out its best sniper, Major Karim Aziz, to intercept and kill Meda's sharpshooter.

HOLDING THE ZERO is one of the more complex of Seymour's novels that I've read to date. There's a plethora of interesting characters besides Augustus himself: Meda, Aziz, Meda's military advisor Haquim, Peake's guide and spotter Omar, Aziz's tracker dog Scout, Willet, the minefield-clearer Joe Denton, the Mossad agent Isaac Cohen, and the relief worker Sarah. Ironically, in the Big Picture of a CIA plot to topple Saddam, Aziz and Peake are on the same side, and it's ultimately only mano-a-mano pride which matches each against the other.

As in all of Seymour's thrillers, the Good Guys don't always win, and the Bad Guys don't always lose. At the conclusion, one must tally up the body count to decide whose side owns the victory - and it's often Pyrrhic.

As we peer over the shoulder of Willet as he unearths the nature of the man Peake and composes his report, we also march along with Augustus on the journey that will prove Willet right or wrong. At the end of the day in an isolated Iraqi valley, we must stand amazed.

Gerald Seymour's Best So Far
I have read all Gerald Seymour's books (including the latest "The Untouchable") and "Holding the Zero" is, in my view, the best of a very good bunch.

As well as having good basic stories, supplemented by a number of interesting sub-plots, Seymour's books are very well researched and far better written than your average thriller.

"Holding the Zero" is, again, brilliantly written with the storyline involving a British amateur marksman repaying a debt of honour by travelling to Iraq in support of an inevitably doomed Kurdish uprising, the upshot being a suspense-filled duel with an Iraqi sniper.

Genuinely "unputdownable".

My God - Buy this now!!!
I have read some good books in my time, from The Lord Of The Rings and Watership Down, to Rainbow Six, The Dune Series, and The Worldwar/Colonisation series. And let me say that I have never read anything as bloody good as this! Everything about this book is perfect, especially the storyline and the characters within. The detail is there at just about the right level, giving specifications that give you an image rather than a headache. And the two simultaneous storylines of Gus in the field and of the security service back in England drip feeds you background, familiarising you with Gus - making him into a real person rather than a simple character. As I said, this is - to me - the single best book I have ever read. obviously the idea of two snipers in Iraq isn't going to appeal to everyone, but if you are even remotely interested in this kind of thing then you will almost certainly love this book as much as i did.