Welcome to Litsy!

This interesting and enjoyable read is set partly in South Africa; aboard the last of the Royal Mail Ships, RMS St Helena; and, most importantly, on beautiful St Helena Island, a unique and remote British territory, in the South Atlantic Ocean, still only accessible by sea, and one of the most remote places on earth. Lucy Morgen, the main character, has escaped to the peace and beauty of St Helena Island, after becoming disillusioned with a materialistic society in South Africa, and having been sadly disappointed in love. However, she is a shareholder in a large company, established and built up by her grandfather and father, and operating in ethical and socially responsible ways. It becomes the target of a hostile take-over bid which, if successful, would destroy the Company and its good works, create large job losses, and mean economic hardship for the communities which depend on the Company. Lucy refuses to become involved, as she has left that life behind her. However, when it becomes clear that the votes attaching to her shares could settle the fate of the Company, two men whom she has loved in the life she has left (on opposite sides of the take-over battle) sail to the Island to secure her support. How they try to persuade her, how Lucy reacts to them, and the development of their relationships in the context of the Island and the Company, provide absorbing reading as the clock ticks down to the shareholders' meeting which will decide the fate of the company and all who depend on it. The author has combined the ideas of someone holding the balance of power (effectively, the deciding votes) in a hostile bid for a company, with a beautiful and unusual love story, and a very special and little known exotic Island location. The reader is shown the good and bad of the financial markets as investment bankers (currently topical!) and others try by fair means and foul to influence the shareholders of the Company to secure their support for and against the take-over. This is juxtaposed with the Island of unique character, which itself faces challenges at a critical time in its long history. An airport is being built on the Island, which will therefore soon be more open to the outside world, with influences for good and ill. This makes the portrait of the Island embedded in The Deciding Votes especially interesting as St Helena Island will increasingly be in the news.