CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Finalist 2010.

A chilling tale of what Britain could so easily become – a police state with stifling surveillances able to manipulate anyone.  This raises the question of how far the state should interfere with our private lives in the name of security.  David Eyam has found a way to stop the rot and a dramatic plot unfolds.  Well written and worryingly feasible, this is gripping stuff.  First class.

Comparison: Gerald Seymour, Robert Wilson, Alan Furst.

CWA Judges’ comments: 'Alarming political thriller with a powerful message: our freedom and personal integrity are at risk.'

Synopsis

At his funeral the bells of the church were rung open rather than half-muffled, as is usual for the dead. Kate Lockhart has come with corporate leaders, ministers and intelligence chiefs to a beautiful town in the Welsh Marches to mourn her soul mate, David Eyam, the brightest government servant of his generation. All that remains of Eyam are the burnt fragments of a man killed far from home in a devastating explosion. But Eyam has left a devastating legacy and certain members of the congregation on that bitterly cold March day are desperate to suppress it. A group of locals come to feel the full weight of the state's determination. Kate Lockhart, now a Mergers and Acquisitions lawyer from Manhattan but a former SIS officer in Indonesia is equal to Eyam's legacy . She becomes the focus of the state's paranoiac power and leads the local resistance to it, with all the cunning of her former trade, directed from beyond the grave by Eyam. The state is no match for the genius of the dead.

Reviews

'Former spook Kate Lockhart is enraged by the violent death of her old lover, David Eyam, head of British Intelligence. Even more chilling is the legacy he leaves behind which is set to spin the UK into a police state'
Henry Sutton DAILY MIRROR

'In Henry Porter's exciting, timely and frightening story, a single brave, prescient individual eventually outwits megalomaniac officialdom. This book is primarily a can't-put-it-down , rattling good yarn but it's also a deadly serious and truly awful warning'
Jessica Mann LITERARY REVIEW

'A daring, stylish and tensely paced thriller that brilliantly imagines the consequences for Joe Public should some of the government's suggested security proposals become law'
METRO
 
'For those who like political thrillers, this is one of the season's best: scary, informative and, alas, eminently believable'
ECONOMIST

'He is widely recognised now as a real master of the literary espionage thriller, a true sucessor to le Carre'
PRESS GAZETTE

'The Dying Light bowls along at a cracking pace with more twists and turns than a street map of Venice'
INDEPENDENT

'Porter rails against that very British apathy which has already allowed the state to pass all the legislation necessary to turn his dystopian nightmare into reality - the same apathy, ironically, which makes such nakedly polemical British novels so rare, and welcome'
Jeremy Jehu DAILY TELEGRAPH

About the Author

Henry Porter has written for most national broadsheet newspapers. He was editor of the Atticus column on the Sunday Times, moving to set up the Sunday Correspondent magazine in 1988. He contributes commentary and reportage to the Guardian, Observer, Evening Standard and Sunday Telegraph. He is the British editor of the American magazine Vanity Fair and divides his time between New York and London. More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation