Wasted - J. Ryan

Joe St Aubin and girlfriend Becks Bowman have the awful suspicion that his secret agent father could be working for the wrong side - a drugs gang leader and poisoner, the Contessa Palestrina. Worse still, they have discovered that this lethal woman hates Monsieur le Comte de la Rochelle, who has become a father figure to Joe during his quest to find his dad. When new girl, Talia, arrives at Joe and Becks' school, they suspect that she is the Contessa's daughter. Their worst fears are confirmed when Talia invites them to her birthday party in Paris, saying that Monsieur's son Arnaud will be there. In Paris, they tail the Contessa into her poison laboratory in the Catacombs, but she locks them in there. They blast their way out, but Joe has picked up a mobile phone smeared with a contact poison. He is close to death when Monsieur saves him with an injection. At the party, Talia collapses. With Monsieur, the teenagers pursue the Contessa to his yacht in Marseille. She has taken Arnaud hostage with a deadly remote control poison bracelet, and demands that Monsieur sails to England. During the violent storm that follows, tragic revelations emerge about Monsieur's past, and Joe's life is about to change forever...

Following the success in schools of the first two books in the 4-part 'Missing Dad' series, 1: Wanted and 2: Twisted (Matador, 2015 and 2017), J Ryan is launching book 3: Wasted. The book is eagerly awaited by students who discovered a passion for reading when they first picked up the teen spy thriller.