Jane Wood of Quercus has acquired six action-packed standalone African thrillers by Tony Park from Isobel Dixon at Blake Friedmann, for an exciting launch into the UK market.  Tony Park divides his time between Australia and a tent in the Kruger Park and Quercus will begin by publishing SILENT PREDATOR (which is set partly in the Kruger Park) in paperback in November 2010.  The hero of the novel is protection officer Detective Sergeant Tom Furey, who wakes up in a luxury safari lodge in Kruger to his worst nightmare - the disappearance of the British Minister of Defence Procurement, the man he was supposed to be protecting … Quercus will follow with the hardback of Park's latest novel THE DELTA (set in the Okavango Delta and starring female mercenary Sonja Kurtz) in February 2011, with FAR HORIZON hot on its heels in May 2011.

This is what Jane Wood has to say:  'At Quercus we're thrilled to have acquired Tony Park's brilliant thrillers, both frontlist and backlist.  His full-blooded African adventures have kept us all feverishly turning the pages and we're very excited to be launching him into the UK market.  His novels combine fast-paced action with romance, and his topical stories are set against the huge landscapes of Africa. Wonderful stuff!'

Tony Park says:
'I'm thrilled that I'm going to be published in the UK and South Africa by Quercus, which has a fantastic reputation as a fast growing, successful publishing company, and I'm honoured to be included in the ranks of their authors. I've had many people from the UK stumble across my books on their travels and then contact me asking where they can get more of them, so I'm really pleased the stories will now be reaching a much wider audience.'

Australian writer Tony Park fell in love with South Africa on a short trip in 1995 and he and his wife now divide their time between their home in Sydney and a tent in the Kruger Park. He is a qualified military parachutist and a major in the Australian Army Reserve. He has worked in journalism and PR, including 6 months in Afghanistan in 2002 as PR officer for the Australian ground forces there. He has written PART OF THE PRIDE, the life story of 'the Lion Whisperer' Kevin Richardson, as well as seven acclaimed, action-packed adventure thrillers for Macmillan Australia, who publish THE DELTA in July.

Each year Tony leads a group of fans on safari to key locations in his novels ("The Wonders of the Okavango" coming up this September!). But as Isobel Dixon says:  "Tony's novels are also brilliant escapism for these credit-crunch times, with all the thrill of African landscapes and some heart-stopping action besides, without the need to run the gauntlet of airport security or take any malaria tablets…"

See more on Tony's website and his blog