Planned as the first title of a series of female adventure thrillers based around a main character called Petra – an incredibly competent but emotionally vulnerable off-shore coastguard – THE STORM PROPHET takes place against the backdrop of the Boxing Day Sydney-to-Hobart yacht race, and the terrifying prediction concerning it made by a young ‘precognitive’ boy from South Africa.
As the race looms ever closer, Petra finds herself drawn into it both profesionally, as a lifeguard, and emotionally – for her best friend of many years, Kirsten, is both sponsoring and crewing a competing boat, the Sentinel.
How seriously must the boy’s prediction be taken, with so many lives at stake? Does Kirsten have ulterior motives in her insistence on continuing with the race? And can Petra trust her boyfriend, Billy, who himself has started working for Kirsten? Petra is eventually forced to question everything she has ever believed about people and how and why they act.
With its nail-biting central scene – the race itself – THE STORM PROPHET is a pacey, psychological thriller that asks questions about faith, trust and human motives.
Hector Macdonald was brought up in the wilds of East Africa and forced to adapt to European life when he was sent to school in England. Developing a strong interest in biology he pursued the subject to a first-class degree with Richard Dawkins at Oxford University. Hector’s first career was in business, with three years as a strategy consultant followed by an MBA at INSEAD. He wrote two novels whilst in his mid-twenties: THE MIND GAME, which sold into 23 languages and garnered rave reviews when published by Penguin UK in 2000; and then in 2003, THE HUMMINGBIRD SAINT, rights to which again sold widely. Hector began the research for THE STORM PROPHET, his latest novel, back in December 2002, when he lived in Sydney, discovered Pittwater and watched the Sydney to Hobart race from afar. He lives and works in London as a freelance management consultant.