DAN FESPERMAN

As an F-16 fighter pilot, Darwin Cole was a family man on top of his world. Now hes a washout - drunk and alone in a trailer in the Nevada desert, haunted by the memory of an Afghan child running for her life from the Predator drone he piloted. Reluctantly, Cole teams up with three journalists seeking to discover the identity of the anonymous intelligence operative who called the shots in that ill-fated mission. But in a surveillance culture, even the well-intentioned must sometimes run for their lives. Especially when theyre tracking leads to the very heart of that culture - in intelligence, in the military, and among the unchecked private contractors who stand to profit richly from the advancing technology... Technology not just for use over there, but for right here, right now.

A few years before the fall of the Berlin Wall, spook-turned-novelist Edwin Lemaster reveals to young journalist Bill Cage that hed once considered spying for the enemy. For Cage, a fan who grew up as a Foreign Service brat in the very cities where Lemaster set his plots, the story creates a brief but embarrassing sensation. More than two decades later, Cage, by then a lonely, disillusioned PR man, receives an anonymous note hinting that he should have dug deeper. Spiked with cryptic references to some of his and his fathers favorite old spy novels, the note is the first of many literary bread crumbs that soon lead him back to Vienna, Prague, and Budapest in search of the truth, even as the events of Lemasters past eerily--and dangerously--begin intersecting with those of his own. Why is beautiful Litzi Strauss back in his life after 30 years? How much of his fathers job involved the CIA? Did Bill, as a child, become a pawn? As the suspense steadily increases, a long stalemate of secrecy may finally be broken.

Freeman Lockhart, a humanitarian aid worker and his Bosnian wife have just retired to a charming house on a Greek island. On their first night, violent intruders blackmail Freeman into spying on an old Palestinian friend living in Jordan. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., a Palestinian-American named Aliyah Rahim is worried about her husband, who blames their daughter's death on the U.S. anti-terror policies. Aliyah learns that he is plotting a cataclysmic act of revenge; in a desperate effort to stop him, she flies to Jordan to meet her husband's co-conspirators. There she encounters Freeman neck-deep in his own investigation. As their paths intertwine, the story rises to its fast-paced, explosive climax.

Winner of the CWA Steel Dagger for Thriller of the Year. Dan Fesperman has written that rre thing: a fine and intelligent novel that makes you think, and keeps you turning the pages.

Élu Meilleur roman policier de lannée par le New York Times9 février 1942. Dès son arrivée à New York, Woodrow Cain, un jeune flic du sud des États-Unis, est accueilli par les flammes qui séchappent

Vous êtes fan de John le Carré et du Bureau des légendes ? Réjouissez-vous !1979. Berlin-Ouest. Helen Abell Shoat est engagée par la CIA pour soccuper des résidences sécurisées destinées aux agents e

Vlado Petric, former detective in war-torn Sarajevo, has left his beloved homeland to join his wife and daughter in Germany, where he scratches a meagre living among the dust of former conflicts on the building sites of the new Berlin. Returning home one evening, he finds an enigmatic American investigator waiting for him in the small apartment he now shares with his wife and daughter. The investigator, Calvin Pine, works for the International War Crimes Tribunal, and he tells Petric that they want him to go to The Hague. It doesnt take Petric long to accept, especially when Pine tells him they are after a big fish: one of the men who they think is responsible for the terrible massacre of Srebrenica. What Petric doesnt know is that he is also being used as bait to lure into the open a murderer from the previous generation; a man whose activities in the Second World War makes the current generation of killers look like amateurs.As Petric travels from modern-day Germany, through the ruins of Bosnia, to the peaceful hills of southern Italy where bitter, unresolved tensions still crackle beneath the surface, the stakes become all too personal. And he soon finds that investigating the mysteries of the past can be every bit as dangerous as finding his way through the war zones of the present.

Vlado Petric is a homicide investigator in war-torn Sarajevo. When he encounters an unidentified body near sniper alley, he realizes that it is the body of Esmir Vitas, chief of the Interior Ministrys special police, and that Vitas has been killed not by any snipers aim but by a bullet fired at almost pointblank range. Searching for the killer in this city of murderers, Petric finds himself drawn into a conspiracy, the scope of which goes beyond anything he could possibly have imagined.Lie in the Dark brilliantly renders the fragmented society and underworld of Sarajevo at warthe freelancing gangsters, guilty bystanders, the drop-in foreign correspondents, and the bureaucrats frightened for their jobs and very lives. It weaves through this torn cityscape the alienation and terror of one mans desperate and deadly pursuit of bad people in an even worse place.

A delightful blend of humour and high tension - Our Man in Havana for the twenty-first century Mick HerronTwisty, topical, and often darkly comedic, Pariah is Fesperman at his best David McCloskey, author of Damascus StationAn adrenaline-fueled thriller about a disgraced comedian-turned-politician who takes on the role of a lifetime: infiltrating a corrupt Eastern European country to spy on their brutal dictator.After a humiliating on-set incident, Hal Knight movie star, comedian and former congressman retreats to a Caribbean island to drown his career and pride. But when CIA operatives approach him with a wild proposition to exploit the admiration of Bolrovias despot, Nikolai Horvatz Hal seizes the chance for redemption.As Horvatzs guest of honour, Hal faces his greatest acting challenge yet. What begins as simple espionage becomes a deadly battle of wits, with consequences stretching from the palace to Washington.With Pariah, Dan Fesperman delivers a razor-sharp story of espionage, celebrity and one mans search for meaning amid power, deception and danger.

Dropping into the smoky chaos of Peshawar after 9/11, Skelly, a burned-out American foreign correspondent, discovers that to survive in Peshawars swirling humanity he will need a fixer: a local man who speaks English, knows the area, and is a jack-of-all-trades who can both save his skin and take him to the action. And for journalists in Peshawar, the real action is in Afghanistan.Skelly chooses Najeeb, the banished son of a tribal warlord. Soon they are driving dusty roads westward in the shadowy wake of ex-Mujahadeen Mahmood Razaq, tipped to claim leadership of the next regime.Skellys quest for the scoop of a lifetime means tracking down the one man the whole world is seeking.And Najeeb, torn by divided loyalties, must find the way for both of them, in a land where a single misstep - or lapse of trust - can prove fatal.

From the acclaimed author of Winter Work comes a gripping novel about a disgraced New York City cop in 1942 whose latest investigation will thrust him into a citywide web of possibly traitorous corruption from which he may not get out alive. "Addictive, fast-paced, and thrilling. San Francisco Book ReviewFebruary 9, 1942. Southern cop Woodrow Cain arrives in New York City for a new position with the NYPD and is greeted with smoke billowing out from the SS Normandie, engulfed in flames on the Hudson. On Cains first day on the job, a body turns up in the same river. Unfamiliar with the milieu of mob bosses and crooked officials in the big city, Cains investigation stalls, until a strange man who calls himself Danziger enters his life. Danziger looks like a miscreant, but speaks five languages, has the manners of a gentleman, and is the one person who can help Cain identify the body. A letter writer for illiterate European immigrants, Danzinger has a seemingly boundless knowledge of the citys denizens and networksand possesses information that extends beyond the reach of his clients, hinting at an unfathomable past. As the body count grows, Cain and Danziger inch closer toward an underground web of possibly traitorous corruption...but in these murky depths, not even Danzinger can know what kind of danger will await them.

In one of the great espionage novels of our time (#1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Child), a young woman goes on the run after discovering a dark truth at the heart of the CIAs operations in postwar Berlin, only to be murdered years later. Now her daughter is determined to uncover the truth. West Berlin, 1979. Helen Abell oversees the CIAs network of safe houses, rare havens for field agents and case officers amidst the dangerous milieu of a city in the grips of the Cold War. Helens world is upended when she overhears a meeting between two people unfamiliar to her speaking a coded language that hints at shadowy realities. Before the day is out, she witnesses a second unauthorized encounter, one that will place her in the sight lines of the most ruthless and dangerous man at the agency. What she has witnessed will have repercussions that reach across decades and continents into the present day, when, in a farm town in Maryland, a young man is arrested for the double murder of his parents, and his sister takes it upon herself to find out why he did it.

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2025 An adrenaline-fueled thriller about a disgraced comedian-turned-politician who takes on the role of a lifetime: infiltrating a corrupt Eastern European country to spy on their brutal dictatorHal Knight, a comedian and movie star-turned politician, is no stranger to controversy. But after an embarrassing and humiliating encounter on set, Knight resigns from Congress, quits social media, and disappears to the tiny Caribbean island of Vieques to drink dirty martinis and nurse his wounds. Shortly after his arrival, he is approached by a trio of CIA operatives hoping to recruit him to infiltrate the power structure of Bolroviaa hostile, Eastern European country whose despotic president, Nikolai Horvatz, happens to be a longtime fan of Knights adolescent male humor. Knowing that Horvatz plans to invite the disgraced star for an official visit, the CIA coaxes Knight to accept. Skeptical, but with little to lose, Knight accepts the challenge, sensing this might be his one chance to do something worthwhile, even if no one else ever finds out.Upon arrival as President Horvatzs guest of honor, Knight confronts his ultimate acting challenge. What begins as an assignment to keep his eyes and ears open quickly turns into a life-or-death battle of wits, with consequences reaching all the way to Washington. With Pariah, Dan Fesperman has crafted a heart-pounding thriller about espionage, entertainment, and one mans pursuit of redemption.

From the acclaimed author of Layover in Dubaithe story of a journalists journey to Vienna, Prague, and Budapest in search of the truth about a spy-turned-novelists decades of dark secrets As fiendishly clever a spy story as you could hope for. A guaranteed delight for any espionage fan. The Seattle Times A few years before the fall of the Berlin Wall, spook-turned-novelist Edwin Lemaster reveals to up-and-coming journalist Bill Cage that hed once considered spying for the enemy. For Cage, a fan who grew up as a Foreign Service brat in the very cities where Lemaster set his plots, the story creates a brief but embarrassing sensation. More than two decades later, Cage receives an anonymous note hinting that he should have dug deeper. Spiked with cryptic references to some of his and his fathers favorite old spy novels, the note is the first piece of a puzzle that will lead Cage back to Vienna, Prague, and Budapest in search of the truth, even as he discovers that the ghosts of Lemasters past eerilyand dangerouslystill haunt the present. As the suspense steadily increases, decades of secrets begin to unravel.

The widely acclaimed author of Winter Work now recasts the spy novel for the post-9/11 worldanyone might be watching, everyone is suspect. Exceptional. Fesperman writes so well that its easy to follow wherever he leads. Chilling. The Washington PostFreeman Lockhart, a humanitarian aid worker and his Bosnian wife have just retired to a charming house on a Greek island. On their first night, violent intruders blackmail Freeman into spying on an old Palestinian friend living in Jordan. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., a Palestinian-American named Aliyah Rahim is worried about her husband, who blames their daughters death on the U.S. anti-terror policies. Aliyah learns that he is plotting a cataclysmic act of revenge; in a desperate effort to stop him, she flies to Jordan to meet her husbands co-conspirators. There she encounters Freeman neck-deep in his own investigation. As their paths intertwine, the story rises to its fast-paced, explosive climax.

From the acclaimed author of The Cover Wife comes a "fast-paced fascinating thriller (The Washington Post) featuring a lethal mix of mobsters, prostitutes, crooked cops, consuls, and corporate players in the mysterious and gleaming city of Dubai. Sam Keller, an auditor at a giant pharmaceutical firm, expected a six-hour layover in Dubai. Then his companys corporate security officer asked him to extend his stay two days to keep an eye on a hard-partying colleague. Sam agrees, but against his better judgment, he decides to live it up a little, which has disastrous results. First Hatcher is murdered. Then Sam is arrested. Was he set up? Unsure whether he can trust his employer, Sam forms an unlikely alliance detective with Anwar Sharaf, a former pearl diver and gold smuggler.

Revere Falk is an FBI interrogator who believes it is possible to get more from a terrorist suspect by treating him decently than by using more robust methods. He lives his life by a certain code of honour. This puts him in a minority at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. So when the body of a US soldier is found under mysterious circumstances on the beach, and a high-ranking investigative team is flown in, Falk should be above suspicion. But Falk has a secret, a secret he had hoped was dead and buried. Now, it is reaching out from his past, to the sodium-lit cell blocks and stifling humidity of this claustrophobic rumour-mill of a community, and its implications are greater than he could ever have imagined. Dan Fesperman is already the winner of the CWA John Creasey and the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger awards. This, his fourth book, will surely be hailed as his best yet.