Liam Kelly
Liam Kelly
Forged in Shadow: Book 1
Every assassin has a beginning. This is Harry O’Connor’s.
He was raised to protect.
Trained to survive.
When danger closes in, Harry O’Connor must choose: become his father’s creation or forge his own path.
Smart. Athletic. Reserved. Harry O’Connor appears to be an ordinary young man finishing high school on Australia’s quiet Northern New South Wales coast.
He is anything but.
After his mother’s death, Harry is raised by his father Reece, a former SAS soldier turned mercenary, shaped by guilt, love, rigid discipline and a war that never ends. Growing up among men who carry out missions governments will never acknowledge, Harry knows what his father is, even if no one says it aloud.
Then a devastating terrorist attack in Tel Aviv changes everything. Forced to move to the United States with Reece and his band of mercenaries, Harry must decide once and for all who he will become … as the violence he has been trained for closes in.
For readers who love Vince Flynn, Mark Greaney, Brad Thor, Jack Carr and Daniel Silva, Forged in Shadow offers the realism, geopolitics and insider perspective that make political thrillers so compelling.
‘Forged in Shadow is a first novel by Liam Kelly KC. It is literate and allusive as to be expected from a former Rhodes Scholar and leading King’s Counsel. It is also well plotted, topical and character driven. It is a commendable piece of work likely to be enjoyed by lawyers and non-lawyers alike.’
Ian Callinan AC KC, former High Court judge, author and playwright
‘Forged in Shadow is a gripping, globe-spanning thriller debut by Liam Kelly, and an engaging head-dive into the universe of Harry O’Connor, a young operative as clinically brilliant in assassination as academia. Blending technical precision with grit and gore, Kelly’s intensely geopolitical work reflects his own background as an Australian lawyer who cut his teeth everywhere from the hallowed Oxford halls to Germany’s formidable legal quarters. The novel opens audaciously: O’Connor glides from a keynote medical speech to a deadly operation in Bavaria, before returning in time for post-conference cocktails. This opening gambit sets the stage for a tale that reads like a young Bond’s crucible, grounded in the fine line between civilian and specialist. Kelly applies a lawyer’s precision to a narrative that builds to a thoroughly earned finale.’
Finn Coleman, Journalist (News Corp Australia)
‘Liam Kelly brings a lifetime of experience, growing up in Australia, studying at Oxford University, living in Germany, and travelling internationally for work to this intense spy thriller. Harry O’Connor and his motley crew of hardened, fiercely loyal ex elite warriors from Australia, the US, the French Foreign Legion, and Israel – his adopted family – captivate the reader from the first page. Kelly weaves his deep understanding and learning of geopolitics and history into the modern Australian landscape and the world of international terrorism. The novel is written with intensity but also with laconic, irreverent Aussie humour in what becomes a gripping debut novel. I found it impossible to put down. Bravo. 10/10.’
