Will Cochrane monitors the nighttime streets of Gdansk, Poland, waiting for the appearance of a Russian defector, a man bearing a top-secret document. Will believes the defector is about to step out of the cold and into the hands of Polish authorities, but suddenly everything goes sideways. The target shows up, but so does a team from the Russian foreign intelligence service SVR, and they are hell-bent on keeping the man from walking. Then, in a hail of crossfire, a van speeds into the melee and snatches the defector out from under them all. Everyone wants the man and the codes he carries - but now he's gone and it's up to Will and his CIA/MI6 team to find him before the Russians do. Will tracks both the missing Russian and his kidnappers, believing the defector has his own warped agenda. But soon it's apparent that the real perpetrator could be someone much more powerful: a former East German Stasi officer who instigated a supersecret pact between Russian and US generals almost 20 years ago. An agreement, which if broken for any reason, was designed to unleash the world's deadliest assassin. Then Will learns that the Russians have tasked their own 'spycatcher' - an agent just as ruthless and relentless as Will - to retrieve the document. Now Will knows that he faces two very clever and deadly adversaries, who will stop at nothing to achieve their aims. Master spy Will Cochrane returns in this action-packed follow-up to SPYCATCHER and SENTINEL, written by real-life former field officer Matthew Dunn.
In quiet moments, Cochrane plays Bach on his lute and whips up pheasant casserole with shallots and Calvados. But mostly he spends his time gunning down enemies in a taut and well-told tale that ricochets across Europe. Save for works by Alan Furst and the stellar Mark Burnell, good thrillers have been thin on the ground of late. Mr Dunn has redressed this balance with an altogether gripping book. - THE ECONOMIST
Author
About Matthew Dunn
Matthew Dunn was trained by SIS in all aspects of intelligence collection and direct action including agent running, deep-cover deployments, small-arms, explosives, military unarmed combat, surveillance, anti-surveillance, counter-surveillance, advanced driving, infiltration and exfiltration techniques and covert communications. He used his skills extensively on operations. Although typically he worked alone, but in conducting near seventy missions, he also had significant experience of working with highly-specialised units from the SAS and SBS as well as conducting joint-operations with MI5, GCHQ and the CIA. Medals are never awarded to modern MI6 officers, but Dunn was the recipient of a very rare personal commendation from the Foreign Secretary actions that directly influenced the successful conclusion of a major international incident. He lives in England.
