AN INTRODUCTION FROM HUMPHREY HAWKSLEY

Could you briefly introduce yourself please?

I am Humphrey Hawksley. I am an author, broadcaster and host of the Democracy Forum twice monthly debates and the monthly Care Visions Professional Talk examining challenges among the most vulnerable children and young people. For some thirty years I worked as a foreign correspondent for the BBC, covering crises all over the world. It has been this experience, of us as individuals caught up in the machineries of government, politics and power, that feeds into my Rake Ozenna series.

Could you briefly introduce the hero of the series, Rake Ozenna, please?

Rake is a native Alaskan from the remote island of Little Diomede on America’s border with Russia. His parents abandoned him, and he was raised in the small community of less than a hundred people. As a teenager, he joined the Alaska National Guard where his rugged character, survival skills, quick decision making and ability to adapt to any environment broke him through to officer class. When we meet Rake in Man on Ice, he is a captain in his thirties and engaged to be married to Carrie Walker, a trauma surgeon. They met in an Afghanistan conflict zone but, given their different cultural backgrounds, neither is sure how the relationship between two restless, free spirits will work. Whatever unfolds, Rake finds he cannot get Carrie out of his mind. As the late, great Nelson de Mille said of Rake Ozenna: “He is smart and tough, and we’re glad to have him on our side.”  

The books take place in varied locations – did you have to conduct extra research for this, or perhaps these are places you've visited yourself?

Yes. Man On Ice was conceived from a BBC reporting assignment to Little Diomede Island when U.S.-Russian tensions were worsening. The visit was meant to be an overnight, but I had to stay almost two weeks because bad weather stopped the helicopter getting in. Every morning, I looked across to Russia’s Big Diomede Island which is a military base less than three miles away and imagined how easy it would be for Russian troops to take the island. For Man On Edge, I travelled to the far north of Norway on its border with Russia. As part of that, research, I learned dog sledding. Man On Fire is set in mostly in Europe, places like Bonn and Prague, and I drew material from reporting assignments to Kazakhstan and Russia. Ice Islands deals with Asian organised crime in Japan which I’ve looked into for my non-fiction books. The FBI was very helpful in my research. 

Could you let our readers know what's in store for Rake in the rest of the series?

Rake’s next adventure is Operation Icebreaker, due out in September 2026, set in the Alaskan and Greenland Arctic: Many of us know the designs America has on Greenland.

What is a book you’re loving at the minute or have read recently?

I have just finished – and couldn’t put down – Marc Cameron’s Dead Line, the latest in his Alaskan-based Arlis Cutter series. No-one writes tension and cold like Marc. Totally brilliant. Marc has also been an author of the Tom Clancy franchise.