Hail the Queen

Maybe she ran because he beat her. She’s the face that launched a thousand ships. And she’s back.

A wacky, compelling, no-holds-barred saga that dissects the world of espionage as never before.

Mixed-race teenager Helen leads a cast of characters entitled The Dirtied Dozen, in this under-the-radar Brit thriller series from Amazon best-selling author Raechel Sands.

Told through the eyes of 12 women spies - CIA, MI6 and KGB - even Clinton, Obama, British PM Johnson, and his aide Cumming, get a look in.

In London, MI6 wants a perfume munition containing a weaponized virus - and engages a psychopath to coerce its Russian inventor. Meanwhile, an Irish translator on their Russia Desk is reading Ulysses on a stake out.

"Sure everyone must pretend to read Ulysses,” she mused.

The power was still out but, being in the window, she could see the page. The character in the novel, Mr. Deasy, had been pinching the wings of his nose, and variously slagging off Jews, women - and Helen of Troy:

A woman brought sin into the world.

For a woman who was no better than she should be,

Helen, the runaway wife of Menelaus,

Ten years the Greeks made war on Troy.

“And here he is: this Ulysses, this tricksy man - Mr Metapox. Creator of a deceitful monster, the ultimate Trojan Horse!”

Nearby finished her Virgin Mary, set the glass down, and closed her paperback of Joyce's classic. She looked at Grinin; she looked at Blanka; but she thought of Helen.

“I wonder what sort of queen she was…?” Her mind ran on.

“If she came back, what would she be like? Where would she go? What would she do?"