In a world of lies, one man wants the truth.
Journalist Philip Mangan is trying to stay out of trouble in East Africa, his reputation and his life in tatters. But when he is caught in a terrorist attack in East Africa and a shadowy Chinese figure approaches him in the dead of night with information on the origins of the attack, Mangan is suddenly back in the eye of the storm.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away on a humid Hong Kong night, a key British Intelligence source is murdered minutes after meeting spy Trish Patterson. From Washington, D.C. to the hallowed halls of Oxford University and dusty African streets, a sinister power is stirring, one which will use Mangan and Patterson as pawns -- if they survive.
Deeply steeped in tension and paranoia, Adam Brookes's second novel is a remarkable, groundbreaking spy thriller.
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"[Adam Brookes] does an excellent job of keeping the action moving and the tension high, making Spy Games a difficult book to put down…Brookes has separated himself from the pack: I’ve read a lot of very good China books by excellent journalists, but I’ve never before stayed up far too late on a work night to finish one, unwilling to go to sleep until I knew how it ended.”
— Los Angeles Review of Books
“A rich, can’t-put-it-down thriller…terrific.”
— Joseph Kanon, New York Times bestselling author“A smarter or more exciting mystery likely won’t be released this year.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)“Brookes shows that his impressive debut was no fluke, and [listeners] will look forward to Mangan’s next adventure.”
— Publishers WeeklyThe must-read thriller of the year.
— NPR Books on Night HeronOne of the best and most compulsively readable spy-fiction debuts in years.
— Kirkus on Night HeronThe pace is frenetic and Brookes does a wonderful job with both the high-tech world of cyber intelligence and survival on Beijing's gritty. smog-smothered streets. Highly recommended.
— The Bookseller on Night HeronNight Heron is a fascinating portrait of the dangerous complexities of spying in a restricted country, the competing agendas driving international intelligence, and China's startlingly varied social realities.A must-read for fans of espionage and smart global fiction in general.—Booklist (starred review) on Night Heron
Night Heron is a wonderfully cinematic novel -- I felt myself visually transported into every scene, watching the action unfold -- that also immersed me in the sounds and smells and feel of China, all the while telling a rich, complex espionage story. A remarkable accomplishment.
— Chris Pavone, author of international bestseller The Expats on Night HeronFans of the international espionage genre will inhale this fast tale in a few suspenseful breaths.
— Library Journal on Night HeronOutstanding fiction debut... Brookes [is] a thriller writer to watch.
— Publishers Weekly on Night HeronBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Adam Brookes has been a journalist and foreign correspondent for BBC News. He reported from China, Indonesia, the US and many other countries, Iraq and Afghanistan among them. His debut novel, Night Heron, was nominated for the 2014 CWA John Creasey Dagger award and appeared on the best books of the year lists of the London Times Literary Supplement, Kirkus Reviews, and NPR. Its follow-up, Spy Games, was nominated for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger.