Night Heron

Description

Tell them, the Night Heron is hunting ...A lone man escapes a labour camp in the dead of night, fleeing across the winter desert of north-west China. Two decades earlier, he was a spy for the British. Now he finds Beijing transformed and crawling with danger - the fugitive must quickly disappear on its surveillance-blanketed streets or face death. Desperate and ruthless, he reaches out to his one-time MI6 paymasters via journalist Philip Mangan, offering secrets in return for his life. Mangan is dragged into a deeper and deeper whirlpool of lies, as the secrets prove more valuable than either of them could ever have known...and not only to the British.

Promotion info

Backed by a nationwide press advertising campaign to reach spy fiction fans everywhere. Online content seeded out to thriller readers and bloggers to create huge buzz around publication. Fantastic reviews posted widely online.

Awards

Long-listed for CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger 2014.

Reviews

An intriguing, skilful and taut novel...elegantly plotted and with a piercing eye for detail Daily Mail The best British spy novel debut in years -- Jake Kerridge The Telegraph Debut of the month is Adam Brookes's accomplished Night Heron The Sunday Times The BBC's former China correspondent joins the ranks of John le Carre and Frederick Forsyth with a laser-sharp Beijing spy thriller ... Brookes arrives a full formed talent, with a complete mastery of the genre Daily Express Night Heron reeks with verisimilitude in its settings and atmosphere, and is accompanied by a cleverly plotted action-filled story of Anglo-Chinese espionage The Times A page turner that takes the reader from China's far west to the streets of the fascinating Chinese capital, pulsing with power and danger New York Times An outstanding first novel Washington Post Night Heron by Adam Brookes, a smart spy thriller set in China, I found wholly diverting: another world TLS The 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 The best spy novel so far this year ... signals the start of what should be a very promising career in fictional spying. Combining the intrigue and complexity of the classic spy novel with contemporary themes and skilfully realised Chinese locations this is certainly an espionage novel for the 21st Century. Sydney Morning Herald Brookes, a correspondent for BBC News in Washington, D.C., who was formerly based in China, takes readers deep inside the culture and daily routines of that country in his outstanding fiction debut ... Good chase scenes and tense dialogue, coupled with a convincing picture of what actually happens in the corridors of power, make Brookes a thriller writer to watch. Publishers Weekly Brookes, a one-time China correspondent for the BBC, knows this turf exceedingly well and translates that knowledge into a novel that is as strikingly different as it is thrilling ... One of the best and most compulsively readable spy-fiction debuts in years. Kirkus Night 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 Engrossing and compelling LA Review of Books Fans of the international espionage genre will inhale this fast tale in a few suspenseful breaths. Brookes uses multiple narrators-the spy, the engineer, the journalist, the agent, the boss-whose conflicting alliances tell the real story. Library Journal This exciting thriller opens a rare window on the real China of today Irish Independent Spine-tingling APN Network Fast-paced, intelligent, stimulating and action-packed Lincoln Star Journal

Author description

As the BBC's China Correspondent, Adam Brookes received repeated visits from an anonymous man offering to sell him military secrets to pass to British Secret Services - a likely 'dangle' designed to entrap him. This event inspired the writing of Night Heron, a game-changing thriller ripped from today's headlines. Having been a foreign correspondent for many years, Adam Brookes is deeply engrained in the world of government secrets. He was based in China, the United States and Indonesia for the BBC, and reported from many of the world's most dangerous countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea and Mongolia.