Last Will

For the first time in her career, reporter Annika Bengtzon is covering the glamorous Nobel Prize Dinner, traditionally held in Stockholm's City Hall. The world's notabilities are enjoying themselves on the dance floor when suddenly gunshots break through the din of conversation and music. In the ensuing panic, the presumed assassin wrestles Annika to the ground. Soon, she is caught in the middle of an intricate drama with links to Alfred Nobel--not only as a reporter but also as a key witness.

It is the summer of 1972: the Vietnam War is still raging, the Cold War is still hot and WWII is still a lurking memory. This legal thriller travels from the Canadian bush to the Australian outback; from courtroom battles to barroom brawls. Old Bill has died. He lived alone in a one room shack along the Blue River in Saskatchewan. His was a simple life; he needed little. But in death, he leaves an estate potentially worth millions of dollars. In his handwritten will, he gives all to the wife and daughter of an Australian airman, who was killed in a prisoner of war camp at Niigata, Japan in 1945. To his surviving brother, he leaves ‘absolutely nothing’. Josef Manne, a young criminal lawyer, is charged with carrying out the old man’s wishes. The brother challenges the will. If it is overturned, he inherits all. Josef’s biggest problem is the will itself. Why would Old Bill leave everything to the wife and daughter of this deceased Australian airman? Makes no sense. Josef needs to find out the why. What happened at Niigata in 1945? First, Josef needs to find the wife and daughter. If both are dead, the will lapses, and the estate goes to the brother. The wife has died leaving the daughter, Rebecca, the sole beneficiary. Josef travels to Goondiwindi, Queensland in search of her. Little does he know that others are searching for Rebecca as well – to kill her. Josef has to keep Rebecca alive.

A re-assessment of Alexander the Great's death, exposing a conspiracy by Alexander's generals after his death to undermine his empire. Alexander the Great conquered the largest empire the world had ever seen while still in his twenties but fell fatally ill in Babylon before reaching 33 years old. His wife Roxanne was still pregnant with what would be his only legitimate son, so there was no clear-cut heir. The surviving accounts of his dying days differ on crucial detail, with the most popular version claiming Alexander uttered ‘to the strongest’ when asked to nominate a successor on his deathbed. Decades of ‘civil war’ ensued as Alexander’s hard-won empire was torn asunder by generals in the bloody ‘funeral games’ his alleged final words heralded in. The fighting for supremacy inevitably led to the extermination of his bloodline. But was Alexander really so short-sighted and irresponsible? Finally, after 2,340 years, the mystery is unravelled. In a forensic first, David Grant presents a compelling case for what he terms the ‘greatest succession cover up of all time’. Alexander’s lost Last Will and Testament is given new credibility and Grant deciphers events that led to its erasure from history by the generals who wanted to carve up the empire for themselves.