Highroad to Hell

By Michael Asher

TUNISIA, 1943 – the Allies’ advance is halted by determined Axis forces. The Eighth Army has no choice but to outflank the enemy along their impenetrable Mareth Line in the hellish Matmata Hills.

On a mission to safeguard this movement, Captain Tom Caine’s SAS patrol is diverted by a strange emergency signal that draws them to a derelict aircraft and a mysterious black box.

Besieged by a Nazi Death’s Head unit intent on retrieving the box and betrayed by a comrade who steals it, Caine must make a choice. Should he pursue the stolen object or stick to his original task and face almost certain death? The entire campaign rests on his decision.

Michael Asher has served in the Parachute Regiment and the SAS. With his wife, Arabist and photographer Mariantonietta Peru, he made the first west-east crossing of the Sahara on foot – a distance of 4,500 miles – with camels but without technology or back-up of any kind. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and has won both the Ness Award of the Royal Geographical Society and the Mungo Park Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society for Exploration.