Bøker av Owen Matthews

*A Telegraph Book of the Year* An astonishing investigation into the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war - from the corridors of the Kremlin to the trenches of Mariupol.

SUNDAY TIMES Crime Book of the Month - 'One of the best thrillers of recent years . Intricately researched, cunningly plotted and brilliantly told, Black Sun is a fast-paced and timely thriller set at the height - and in the heart - of Soviet power.

The new novel from a master of the Cold War thriller . . .'This is Robert Harris storytelling territory' Daily Mail'Outstanding' Sunday Times'Tense, exciting and authentic' Charles Cumming, author of Judas 62'Stunning' The Times'Brilliantly plotted' John Sweeney, author of Killer in the Kremlin'A standout thriller' Financial Times1963. In a desolate Russian penal colony, the radio broadcasts news of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy...Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vasin's new posting as director of a gulag camp in the middle of the frozen tundra is far from a promotion. This is where disgraced agents, like Vasin, disappear - sent to die forgotten. And quietly. But tensions in the camp are running high and when a violent revolt breaks out, Vasin finds himself on the run. With him is a mysterious prisoner - who holds the key to the most dangerous secret in the world: who ordered Kennedy's murder.In a breathless race that takes them through the Soviet Union - from the barren Siberian wastelands to the stunning halls of the Katerina Palace and the grey streets of Leningrad and Moscow - Vasin must stay one step ahead of the most ruthless spy and police organizations in the world . . . and keep the most wanted man in Russia alive. It's a journey that will push Vasin's loyalty, morality and his patriotism to the limit. And he must confront the ultimate choice: fall in line, or die fighting the system.With masterful storytelling that weaves together an explosive moment in history with the cutthroat machinations of Soviet politics, Owen Matthews' White Fox captures the paradigm-shifting assassination from a unique Soviet point of view. This is a page-turning thriller - a race against time across Soviet Russia, where the participants face impossible odds and must decide between truth, justice and all-out war.

'This is Robert Harris storytelling territory and is told with equal panache and authenticity. There could be no higher praise.' Daily MailOne the least known but most terrifying moments in modern history - when the fate of the world lay with a lone, nervous Soviet naval officer one hundred meters under the Caribbean sea - lies at the heart of this breathtaking new Cold War thriller from the author of the acclaimed Black Sun.The year is 1962, and KGB Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vasin is searching for ghosts: for evidence of the long-rumoured existence of an American spy embedded at the highest echelons of Soviet power. But it's while on this wild goose chase, a high-stakes espionage race against a rival State agency, that Vasin first hears whispers of an ominous top-secret undertaking: Operation Anadyr. As tensions flare between Nikita Khrushchev and President Kennedy over Russian missiles hidden in Cuba, four Soviet submarines - each carrying tactical ballistic missiles armed with thermonuclear warheads - are ordered to make a covert run at the U.S. blockade in the Caribbean . . .

"e;Black Sun is fascinating and has fearsome authenticity."e;--Frederick Forsyth, #1 New York Times bestselling author"e;Thrilling and suspenseful."e; --Simon Sebeag Montefiore, New York Times bestselling author of The Romanovs"e;To call the novel chilling is an understatement."e;--Booklist (starred review)It is the dawn of the 1960s. In order to investigate the gruesome death of a brilliant young physicist, KGB officer Major Alexander Vasin must leave Moscow for Arzamas-16, a top-secret research city that does not appear on any map. There he comes up against the brightest, most cutthroat brain trust in Russia who, on the orders of Nikita Khrushchev himself, are building a nuclear weapon with 3,800 times the destructive potential of the Hiroshima bomb. RDS-220 is a project of such vital national importance that, unlike everyone else in the Soviet Union, the scientists of Arzamas-16 are free to think and act, live and love as they wish...as long as they complete the project and prove to their capitalist enemies that the USSR now commands the heights of nuclear supremacy. With intricately plotted machinations, secrets and surveillance, corrupt politicos and puppet masters in the Politburo, and one devastating weapon, Owen Matthews has crafted a timely, terrific, and fast-paced thriller set at the height--and in the heart--of Soviet power.

An unprecedented insight into the grim brutality of the Russian revolution and the terror of the Cold War