The Shot by Sarah Sultoon

Today is my stop on the blog tour for a book that I'm still struggling to find the words for - not great for a review, I know! It's The Shot by Sarah Sultoon published this month by Orenda Books. Huge thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for the invitation and to the publisher for my review copy. I will be purchasing a paperback copy.

The Blurb

An aspiring TV journalist faces a shattering moral dilemma and the prospect of losing her career and her life, when she joins an impetuous photographer in the Middle East. A shocking, searingly authentic thriller by award-winning ex-CNN news executive Sarah Sultoon.

Samira is an up-and-coming TV journalist, working the nightshift at a major news channel and yearning for greater things. So when she’s offered a trip to the Middle East, with Kris, the station’s brilliant but impetuous star photographer, she leaps at the chance.

In the field together, Sami and Kris feel invincible, shining a light into the darkest of corners… except the newsroom, and the rest of the world, doesn’t seem to care as much as they do. Until Kris takes the photograph. With a single image of a young Sudanese mother, injured in a raid on her camp, Sami and the genocide in Darfur are catapulted into the limelight. But everything is not as it seems, and the shots taken by Kris reveals something deeper and much darker… something that puts not only their careers but their lives in mortal danger.

Sarah Sultoon brings all her experience as a CNN news executive to bear on this shocking, searingly authentic thriller, which asks immense questions about the world we live in. You'll never look at a news report in the same way again...

My Review

Immediately on finishing this book, I took to Twitter. This is what my tweet said: 'I have just this minute finished The Shot by Sarah Sultoon. I have no words. There are tears running down my face. I have no idea how I am going to write a review of this powerful, extraordinary, heartbreaking book. That might have to be it.'

That was a few days ago. I've thought about the book often in the intervening time and I still feel the same! But I'll have a go at something more. 

Sami is keen to make her way in the world of TV journalism and determined to get off the night shift. Finding herself in the right place at the right time she is sent to Kabul with veteran photographer Kris. She is horrified by what she sees but proves to be an insightful journalist, keen to get the human story, the angle that no one else has got. With Kris she produces some powerful work which she is sure will make a difference back home, make people care, take action. Except it doesn't, and she can't understand that. Kris is much more world weary, has no such expectations, just a heart for the people he photographs and videos. The same happens with their assignment in Baghdad but finally their work from Darfur does make a difference, have an impact. But at what cost to Sami and Kris?

I am as guilty as the next person of watching the news and being horrified at what I see on screen, maybe even shedding a tear. And then turning off the TV, going to bed and not giving what I saw any further thought, like so many of us don't. The backdrop when I was reading this book and still as I write this review is the awful war in Ukraine. This has touched us - we are fundraising, collecting donations, attending demonstrations for our government to do more. Why has it touched us like this when there have been, and are, wars and atrocities all across the globe that haven't garnered this level of attention? Is it because it's closer to home? Is it because the people look like us (I realise that's controversial but maybe an uncomfortable truth, I don't know - it's a discussion I've had more than once in recent weeks)? Or is it maybe because of how it is presented in the media? Is it because we are seeing, and reading, the dreadful human cost of it all?

And this is what The Shot is about. That picture that captures a nation's imagination. Those words that mobilise a nation into action. But it's about so, so much more than that. It's also about the cost to the people bringing us those images and words. 

Sami is desperate to make a name for herself but unprepared for the sights she sees. To be honest, who would be? It must be so much worse up close and in the flesh, as it were, than it is on our screens. It takes her aback, scares and upsets her, but it sets a fire in her belly, and she doesn't understand why that isn't the same for everyone else when she comes back home. Kris only knows how to be a photographer/cameraman. Working pretty much all the time, he's forgotten how to be a husband and father, if he ever knew in the first place. He was probably like Sami once, naive and idealistic, but not any more. He's seasoned, world weary and maybe seems a little numb to it all. But that's really not the whole picture (pun intended). He has his own way of looking at war and its victims and there is a powerful, devastating moment towards the end when someone else gets it. Which is immediately preceded by a beautiful piece of writing echoing and reflecting an equally beautiful piece of writing in the prologue. 

So far I've skirted around what I actually thought about The Shot because, honestly, I'm struggling to put it into words. I was telling someone about it a week or two back and the tears just sprang up unbidden. The blurb states 'You'll never look at a news report in the same way again...' - never has a truer word been written. We see the devastation of war up close, the damage, the pain, the grief. We see the background workings of a TV news station, which was fascinating, and I'm sure pretty accurate, as Sarah Sultoon is more than qualified to tell us that kind of stuff. And we see the heartbreaking impact of it all on two souls in the middle of the maelstrom. An action packed, heartstopping, heartbreaking thriller, The Shot is not an easy book. Often uncomfortable reading, it's hard to call it enjoyable. But my goodness, it is incredibly powerful and impactful, and absolutely worth reading. A book that will stay with me for a very long time. 

The Author

Sarah Sultoon is a journalist and writer, whose work as an international news executive at CNN has taken her all over the world, from the seats of power in both Westminster and Washington to the frontlines of Iraq and Afghanistan. She has extensive experience in conflict zones, winning three Peabody awards for her work on the war in Syria, an Emmy for her contribution to the coverage of Europe’s migrant crisis in 2015, and a number of Royal Television Society gongs. As passionate about fiction as nonfiction, she recently completed a Masters of Studies in Creative Writing at the University of Cambridge, adding to an undergraduate language degree in French and Spanish, and a Masters of Philosophy in History, Film and Television. When not reading or writing she can usually be found somewhere outside, either running, swimming or throwing a ball for her three children and dog while she imagines what might happen if... Her debut thriller The Source is currently in production with Lime Pictures, and was a Capital Crime Book Club pick and a number one bestseller on Kindle.