Black Sun

'[Matthews] impressive first novel . . . the murder investigation is clever, the science neatly explained . . . and the descriptions . . . are revealing. * LITERARY REVIEW * Gripping and authentic. -- Jason Goodwin * COUNTRY LIFE * Based on real events . . . this story is set in a secret Soviet city in 1961. Featuring murder and betrayals, and a flawed but principled KGB man as its hero, it unfolds in the aftermath of Stalinism, amid the scars left by the purges, denunciations and Great Patriotic War. The author, a former Moscow correspondent, knows his terrain inside out. * THE ECONOMIST 'Books of the Year' * Atmospheric . . . his evocation of the landscape and times is sharp, and the insights into the horrors of the Communist past chastening . . . a powerful and gripping piece of writing. -- Maxim Jakubowski * CRIME TIME * A thoroughly dark and disturbing thriller. -- Jon Wise * SPORT * A rattlingly good yarn . . . Matthews has the uncanny ability to transport the reader back in time to the Soviet Union of 1961 . . . a debut novel which deserves a wide readership. -- Trevor Royle * THE HERALD * Brilliantly plotted and all the more satisfying because it is based on a true story . . . Something else, too: you get it that the Soviet Union in the sixties was a mess with all the wrong people holding the levers of power. And yet, inside the machine, there were humans too: sometimes noble, often seriously brilliant. Reading Black Sun is like stepping into a time machine and setting the dial for Soviet Russia, 1961. -- JOHN SWEENEY The most exciting thriller or mystery story debut this year . . . a cold war whodunnit . . . an absolutely gripping novel by one who knows Russia well and evokes a horrifyingly convincing Soviet Union. -- A. N. Wilson * THE TABLET 'Books of the Year' * This thrilling and suspenseful and original thriller of murder and power is a compelling voyage into the darkest secret city of the soviet nuclear project by an expert on all of Russian life. -- SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE Enthralling . . . Black Sun propels Matthews straight into the first division of thriller writers. -- Adam LeBor * FINANCIAL TIMES * A stunning debut. Matthews writes enviably well and knows Soviet Russia inside-out. Fantastic. -- CHARLES CUMMING Fact and fiction combine to keep the pages turning in this impressive debut thriller. -- Antonia Senior * THE TIMES 'Best Historical Fiction of the Year' * One of the best thrillers of recent years . . . a glorious book, a tour-de-force. It drips with authenticity from every page . . . a page-turning, thumping good read. -- DAVID YOUNG, bestselling author of Stasi Child An outstanding first novel . . . Matthews writes superbly. * SUNDAY TIMES 'Crime Book of the Month' * There are some authors who have gone out into the world to observe the good, the bad and the ugly. Owen Matthews is such a novelist. Black Sun is fascinating and has fearsome authenticity. -- FREDERICK FORSYTH A stunning debut thriller . . . ferocious, authentic and utterly terrifying . . . absolutely riveting. -- Geoffrey Wansell * DAILY MAIL *

OWEN MATTHEWS worked as a war correspondent in Bosnia, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Iraq and Ukraine and was Newsweek magazine's bureau chief in Moscow from 2006 until 2016. He has written several works of non-fiction including the critically-acclaimed Stalin's Children and An Impeccable Spy. Black Sun is his first novel. He lives in Moscow and Oxford.