Dead Spy Running: A Daniel Marchant Thriller: 1 - Hardcover

Stock, Jon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312644760 ISBN 13: 9780312644765

Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL, 2010

Synopsis

Matching the style of le Carré with the high-energy action of Ludlum, Dead Spy Running comes racing out of the gate as the first in a fantastic new series.

From its breathtaking start at the London Marathon, Jon Stock sets a breakneck pace that marks him as a formidable new thriller writer. Dead Spy Running will captivate readers with a story that leaps from a bomb threat in London, to a secret CIA black site in Poland, and on to India, where a spectacular assassination plot threatens to throw world politics into chaos.

About this title

Review:

A relatively new publishing imprint can always use a few winners to achieve lift-off; new publishing kid on the block Blue Door must be rubbing their hands, as the auguries are very promising for Jon Stock’s highly impressive Dead Spy Running. The book arrives emblazoned with raves from the likes of Lee Child and Robert Goddard – hinting to the reader that both action and storytelling will push all the requisite buttons.

Daniel Marchant is an inactive MI9 operative. Rather than languishing in torpor, he has decided to run the London Marathon. But the dangers of his ex-day job are not far away – one of the other competitors is lethally strapped with explosives, and if he reduces his pace, all around him will die bloodily. Marchant does his best to avert the slaughter, but there are those who think that he is compromised in his professional life. The CIA ensured that Marchant’s father was removed from his position as head of MI6, and they are convinced that the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree. Marchant finds himself treated like a suspected terrorist (extraordinary rendition, waterboarding), and things look very black for him. But there are people who are not against him: Marchant’s colleague (and inamorata) Leila. And, more importantly, new Intelligence chief Sir Marcus Fielding, who is suspicious of America’s apparently unshakeable grip over UK foreign policy.

The opening premise (don’t drop below a certain pace or risk detonation) may be borrowed from the movie Speed, but that’s the only element here that doesn’t come up as fresh as paint; Jon Stock has taken the accoutrements of the espionage thriller and given them a bracing wash and rinse. The real achieve, however, is to marry the kinetic energy of the Jason Bourne franchise (that’s the films, rather than Ludlum’s books) with the political sophistication and dyspeptic view of international relations of John le Carré and Gerald Seymour. The publisher Blue Door has a potential bestseller in Dead Spy Running. --Barry Forshaw

Review:

"As elegant as Le Carré and as cynical as the Twenty-First Century." --The Observer (UK)

"As strong as Bourne, as clever as Bond, but with a voice set for Generation Next, Jon Stock has done the impossible in Daniel Marchant and created THE new spy, a living, breathing human, whose own unpredictability suits perfectly our unpredictable world.'" --Stephen Gaghan, Oscar-winning writer of Traffic

"Smart, classy, and relentlessly gripping, Dead Spy Running grabs the reader and doesn't let go. I couldn't quit turning the pages -- like Daniel Marchant running the London marathon, I couldn't stop." --Meg Gardiner, author of China Lake

"Dead Spy Running is a rip-roaring race of a read that never lets up until the finishing tape -- and a bit beyond." --Robert Goddard, author of Into the Blue

"An elegant, unstoppable front runner of a spy thriller." --The Observer (UK)

"The sophistication of John Le Carré or David Ignatius...this is a Jason Bourne sweat-fest with George Smiley's brain." --Daily Telegraph (UK)

"Protagonist Daniel Marchant is the perfect post-Bond spy.... Move over, Jason Bourne." --Bookpage

"Stock, a veteran British journalist with Indian experience, combines LeCarré-style cerebral gamesmanship and bureaucratic maneuvering with the best of thriller action in this character-driven spy novel. Stock's prose is swift and sure, his characters well drawn and the action twisty and relentless. Stock has brought the literary spy novel into the 21st century." --Portsmouth Herald

"Stock, a veteran British journalist with Indian experience, combines LeCarre-style cerebral gamesmanship and bureacratic maneuvering with the best of thriller action in this character-driven spy novel. . . . Stock has brought the literary spy novel into the 21st century." --Sea Coast Online

About this edition

• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0312644760
• ISBN 13: 9780312644765
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320