Some authors just write about it. Chris Ryan has been there done it & lived to tell the tale. This is the second in the action-thriller Agent 21 series by the real-life SAS hero. In the year since Zak Darke was approached by a shadowy government agency to become Agent 21 his world has changed completely. But there is no time to reflect on this
- the undercover operations go on. Zak is sent to a port in west Africa a known terrorist stronghold under the guise of working on a charity volunteer project. But charity work could not be further from Zak's real mission
- he must sneak onboard an enemy ship gather information
- & then destroy it. Never has Zak's training been more useful: Trust nobody.


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Moscow 1965. Former Secret Service agent Leo Demidov is forbidden to travel with his wife & daughters to New York as part of a ' Peace Tour' meant to foster better relations between the two Cold War enemies. Leo's natural paranoia reaches its peak: Why have his family been selected? What is being planned? When Leo's worst fears are realised & a tragic murder destroys everything he loves he demands only one thing: that he is allowed to investigate & find the killer who has struck at the heart of his family. Crippled by grief his request denied Leo sees no other option than to take matters into his own hands thousands of miles from the crime scene. In a surprising thrilling story that spans decades & continents
- from the backstreets of 1960s New York to the mountains of Afghanistan in the 1980s
- Leo will stop at nothing as he hunts the one person who knows the truth: Agent 6.

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A sailor artist lawyer & writer fluent in many languages Bystrolyotov was one of a team of outstanding Soviet spies operating in Western countries between the world wars. He was a dashing man whose Modus Operandi was the seduction of women
- among them a French embassy employee the wife of a British official & a disfigured Gestapo officer. He stole military secrets from Nazi Germany Fascist Italy & enabled Stalin to look into the diplomatic pouches of many European countries. Idealistically committed to the Motherland he showed extraordinary courage & physical prowess
- twice crossing the Sahara Desert & the jungles of the Congo. But in 1938 at the height of Stalins purges Bystrolyotov was arrested & tortured. Sentenced to twenty years of hard labour in the Gulag he risked more severe punishment by documenting the regimes crimes against humanity. With amazing stamina he survived the repression & came to realise the true nature of the ideology he once served unquestioningly.

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Chuck Kelso is an idealist. When he steals a top-secret NATO memorandum he only intends to leak it to the press; but it is soon in the hands of a Russian agent a man who has spent nine years quietly working himself into the fabric of Washington society. Within hours it has reached the KGB & the CIA's top man in Moscow has had his cover blown. For British agent Tony Lawton hunting down the Russian operative
- the 'agent in place'
- is a welcome challenge. But for Chuck's brother the journalist Tom Kelso & his beautiful wife Thea the affair has unleashed a very special terror. Now the race is on to find the Russian spy before a top-level NATO conference. But why is the escaped agent behaving so strangely? Is he who he seems?

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Ten years ago journalist Ben Webster had his investigation into a corrupt Russian business in Kazakhstan crushed the cost of his scrutiny a terrible tragedy.. . Now employed by a private London intelligence agency Websters interest is piqued when a client asks him to expose the dealings of shadowy Russian oligarch Konstantin Malin. Before long Webster finds himself fixated by Malin & by his front man Richard Lock. But how far is he willing to risk the wellbeing of his family? & that of Lock himself? Against a background of Moscow London & Berlin a journey of impossible decisions begins.. . ...

When the deputy commander of Rome's Imperial Security Service is assassinated on the island of Rhodes Cassius Corbulo swiftly finds himself embroiled in the investigation. Assisted once more by ex-gladiator bodyguard Indavara & servant Simo his search for the truth is complicated by the involvement of the dead man's headstrong daughter Annia. Braving hostile seas Cassius & his allies follow the assassin's trail south aboard a ship captained by a roguish Carthaginian smuggler & manned by his disparate dangerous crew. Their journey leads them to the farthest reaches of the empire; to a ruined city where the rules of Roman civilization have long been abandoned & a deadly battle of wits with a brutal relentless foe. ...

A Groundbreaking new thriller by the former Commander of Special Branch who rose to a position co-ordinating all the secret services in London. This is a landmark debut novel for those who like insider fiction in the mould of Stella Rimington. Agent of the State is filled with the kind of authentic detail only a man in the know would be able to tell. A suspected terrorist is frisked for explosives on the Embankment. Operators do this so skilfully he remains completely unaware... In New Scotland Yard a new brand of manager fails to deal with escalating threats
- 'aggressive indecision' is what Detective Chief Inspector John Kerr calls it... He discovers that cocaine-fuelled sex parties in Knightsbridge are pulling in businessmen Russian diplomats & senior members of the British government... When Kerr's investigations are blocked by his bosses in Scotland Yard he decides to go it alone & begins to expose a cover-up that extends to all levels of the British Establishment. Agent of the State is the first novel by Roger Pearce a former Special Branch officer at New Scotland Yard who rose to become its Commander & a key player in Whitehall's intelligence network. It is an authentic account of the way the British intelligence services work at all levels & of the hypocrisy of the British establishment. ' Vividly written & delivering a glimpse of what counter-terrorism feels like it's a highly promising start from a writer who could well have a big future.' Daily Mail ' It's a tribute to Roger Pearce's ability that the plot never becomes impenetrable & there's an uncomfortable authenticity as real-life operations are referenced...a breathless hurtling page-turner.' Financial Times
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The life & poignant death of one of Britain's bravest women. In September 2010 the body of Eileen Nearne was found in a flat in Torquay. With no known friends or relatives a council burial was arranged. A police search of her belongings found wartime French currency & wartime medals. Further investigation revealed that she was one of 40 women sent into France by the SOE the Special Operations Executive Churchill's top secret wartime 'spook' organisation. Her story & her poignant death as a recluse became an international media sensation. Being fluent in French Eileen was identified early in the war by the SOE as a potential agent. After spending time as a wireless operator picking up transmissions from agents in the field & decoding them she was chosen to be parachuted into occupied France underwent paramilitary training & was assigned the codename 'ROSE'. After working in dangerous conditions in Paris for several months she was captured interrogated & tortured. Keeping to her story that she was an unwitting French girl caught up in resistance work she was transferred to a series of concentration camps in Germany. She miraculously escaped from a concentration camp in early 1945. Eileen had difficulty adjusting to living in post-war Britain suffered from a nervous breakdown & eventually became a recluse.

Includes:: 40 illustrations 10 in colour.

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This is the Second World War career of the longest serving double agent in the Double Cross system Harry Williamson. Harry operated from September 1940 to the end of war after initially being parachuted into England by the Nazi secret service the Abwehr. He was quickly caught & taken to Camp 020 for interrogation by the team led by the famous Colonel ' Tin-Eye' Stephens. He eventually agreed to work as a double agent with the cover name TATE & went on to send more than a thousand messages during the war for the Double Cross organization who's aim was to supply disinformation to the Nazi regime. Harry took part in the famous D-Day deception provided the Nazis with misinformation about the damage caused by the V1 & V2 rockets & misled the German Navy with faulty intelligence over U-boat minefields critical to the success of British convoys. After the war he settled in Watford & worked as a photographer. He was almost completely anonymous (although still protected by MI5) partly through fear of revenge until his name was revealed in the 1990s. ...

Pools winner & total wazzock Dennis Sidebottom has moved next door to Ben
- bringing his squeaky-clean kids with him. The Crane
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