'Mercenary Mum is the true story of a young single mother who went from working at her local Woolworths store to serving as a soldier in the Australian Army's elite Close Personal Protection Unit. She then left the army to become a high-risk security contractor, where she was responsible for protecting high-threat targets from assassination and opportune attack in Iraq. Neryl reveals what it's like to be a woman in a private army trying to survive in a prejudiced man's world, exposed to alcohol-fuelled parties, drugs and sexual abuse. Neryl's professional and personal resolve is pushed to its outermost limit when she is confronted by a shocking ambush and death on the world's most dangerous road in Iraq. How did a naïve little girl start out playing with Barbie dolls and end up playing with guns and working for the most powerful security company in Baghdad – and how did she manage to survive with her sanity intact?' (Publication summary)
