Henry Porter – författare

As East Germany collapses, a former Stasi agent is caught in the crossfire of international espionage in this "tour de force on par with John le Carré" (Library Journal, starred review).Winner of the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger AwardSeptember 1989. In the tense final days before the fall of the Berlin Wall, East Germany's Communist government is on the brink of collapse. Even the Stasi, once a notoriously fearsome intelligence agency, can't stop the rebellion. In a desperate play for advantage, they send former foreign agent Dr. Rudi Rosenharte to Trieste to rendezvous with his old lover and fellow agent, Annalise Schering. They believe Annalise has vital intelligence. The only problem: Rudi knows she's dead. After seeing her lying in her own bloodied bathwater, he kept her suicide a secret.As collateral for this mission, the Stasi have imprisoned Rudi's family. But the Stasi is not the only agency using him as a pawn. Soon the British MI6 and American CIA encircle him, forcing him to make an impossible choice."An elegant spy thriller that, I believe, John le Carré himself would be pleased to have attributed to him." —The Guardian"Porter combines impeccable research with compelling characters caught up in the broad sweep of fascinating historical events . . . [a] riveting read." —Publishers Weekly"A top-notch Cold War thriller." —Library Journal, starred review

'A timeless ripping espionage yarn''An up-to-the-minute political novel''Characters who become richer with every appearance'Sunday Times Thriller of the MonthHeart-stopping international spy thriller from 'An espionage master' (Charles Cumming) starring ex-MI6 officer Paul Samson for fans of Mick Herron, Lee Child and John le CarreEx-MI6 officer Paul Samson has been tasked with secretly guarding a gifted young woman, Zoe Freemantle. He is just beginning to tire of the job when he is attacked in the street by a freakish looking knifeman. It's clear the target is on his back not hers. What he doesn't know is who put it there.At that moment, his mentor, the MI6 legend Robert Harland lies dead on a remote stretch of the Baltic coastline. Who needed to end the old spy's life when he was, in any case, dying from a terminal illness? And what or who is Berlin Blue, the name scratched in the sketchbook beside his body? A few hours later, Samson watches footage from the US Congress where billionaire philanthropist Denis Hisami is poisoned with a nerve agent while testifying - an attack that is as spectacular as it is lethal, but spares Anastasia Hisami, the love of Samson's life. Two things become clear. One, it was a big mistake to lose the mysterious Zoe Freemantle. And two, Robert Harland is making a final play from beyond the grave.

A masterclass in espionage thriller fiction from the heir to John le Carre for fans of Mick Herron, Charles Cumming and David McCloskey. Meet 'a female agent for our times', disgraced MI5 operative Slim Parsons.'SURPRISING, ENGROSSING, WITH A BLAZING MORAL ENERGY' Rory Stewart'READS LIKE IT WAS DRAWN FROM TODAY'S HEADLINES' Paul Vidich'ONE OF BRITAIN'S FINEST SPY WRITERS' Daily MailSlim Parsons is all but burned. Her last deep cover job for MI5 ended with a life-and-death struggle on a private jet that caused her to go on the run from both the deadly target and her angry bosses in the Security Service. They say that violence comes too easily to her; that she's bordering on delinquent and unsuitable for the roll of an MI5 operative.Yet she is recalled and asked to infiltrate a news website that's causing alarm in the highest circles. It is staffed by a group descended from wartime codebreakers operating from an unassuming office block near Bletchley Park. Operation Linesman looks like a come down, the curtain on a brilliant career in the shadows. However, she accepts the assignment on condition that the Security Service searches for her missing brother. Linesman turns out to be anything but simple. Her personal loss, her previous deep cover role, and a threat to MI5 itself from her original target come together in a three-way collision. And all the while she is watched by someone even deeper in the shadows than she is.

A masterclass in espionage thriller fiction from the heir to John le Carre for fans of Mick Herron, Charles Cumming and David McCloskey. Meet 'a female agent for our times', disgraced MI5 operative Slim Parsons. 'SURPRISING, ENGROSSING, WITH A BLAZING MORAL ENERGY' Rory Stewart'READS LIKE IT WAS DRAWN FROM TODAY'S HEADLINES' Paul Vidich'ONE OF BRITAIN'S FINEST SPY WRITERS' Daily MailSlim Parsons is all but burned. Her last deep cover job for MI5 ended with a life-and-death struggle on a private jet that caused her to go on the run from both the deadly target and her angry bosses in the Security Service. They say that violence comes too easily to her; that she's bordering on delinquent and unsuitable for the role of an MI5 operative.Yet she is recalled and asked to infiltrate a news website that's causing alarm in the highest circles. It is staffed by a group descended from wartime codebreakers operating from an unassuming office block near Bletchley Park. Operation Linesman looks like a come down, the curtain on a brilliant career in the shadows. However, she accepts the assignment on condition that the Security Service searches for her missing brother. Linesman turns out to be anything but simple. Her personal loss, her previous deep cover role, and a threat to MI5 itself from her original target come together in a three-way collision. And all the while she is watched by someone even deeper in the shadows than she is.

A masterclass in espionage thriller fiction from the heir to John le Carre for fans of Mick Herron, Charles Cumming and David McCloskey. Meet 'a female agent for our times', disgraced MI5 operative Slim Parsons.'SURPRISING, ENGROSSING, WITH A BLAZING MORAL ENERGY' Rory Stewart'READS LIKE IT WAS DRAWN FROM TODAY'S HEADLINES' Paul Vidich'ONE OF BRITAIN'S FINEST SPY WRITERS' Daily MailSlim Parsons is all but burned.Her last deep cover job for MI5 ended with a life-and-death struggle on a private jet that caused her to go on the run from both the deadly target and her angry bosses in the Security Service. They say that violence comes too easily to her; that she's bordering on delinquent and unsuitable for the roll of an MI5 operative.Yet she is recalled and asked to infiltrate a news website that's causing alarm in the highest circles. It is staffed by a group descended from wartime codebreakers operating from an unassuming office block near Bletchley Park. Operation Linesman looks like a come down, the curtain on a brilliant career in the shadows. However, she accepts the assignment on condition that the Security Service searches for her missing brother. Linesman turns out to be anything but simple. Her personal loss, her previous deep cover role, and a threat to MI5 itself from her original target come together in a three-way collision. And all the while she is watched by someone even deeper in the shadows than she is.

One of France's premier scholars of Elizabethan literature investigates the curious case of Henry Porter, his idiosyncratic genius, and his most fascinating play.

The boy could help them bring down a deadly ISIS terror cell. They just have to find him before the other side does.WINNER OF THE 2019 WILBUR SMITH ADVENTURE WRITING PRIZE'A welcome return ... Firefly is both timely and terrific' Mick Herron'An espionage master' Charles Cumming'British espionage fiction is the best in the world, and Porter is part of the reason why' Lee Child From the refugee camps of Greece to the mountains of Macedonia, a thirteen year old boy is making his way to Germany and safety. Codenamed 'Firefly', he holds vital intelligence: unparalleled insight into a vicious ISIS terror cell, and details of their plans. But the terrorists are hot on his trail, determined he won't live to pass on the information.When MI6 become aware of Firefly and what he knows, the race is on to find him. Paul Samson, ex-MI6 agent and now private eye, finds himself recruited to the cause. Fluent in Arabic thanks to his Lebanese heritage, Samson's job is to find Firefly, win his trust and get him to safety.A devastatingly timely thriller following the refugee trail from Syria to Europe, Firefly is a sophisticated, breathtaking race against time from the acclaimed and award-winning author of Brandenburg and The Dying Light.

The stunning new thriller from 'the proud carrier of the flag first unfurled by John le Carre' (LEE CHILD)'An espionage master' CHARLES CUMMING'Timely and terrific' MICK HERRON on Firefly'Epic ... remarkable ... his best book yet' Sunday Times on FireflyAid worker Anastasia Christakos is driving through Calabria to visit one of the new refugee centres funded by her husband, billionaire Denis Hisami, when she slows down to greet two African migrants she recognises. Too late she realises it is an ambush. She manages a desperate phone call to Hisami before her Mafia kidnappers drug her. Hours later she wakes up on a container ship, powering eastwards across the Mediterranean.Anastasia has been abducted and held hostage because Hisami has explosive information that his enemies have killed for and will kill for again. But Hisami's time as a commander with the Kurdish Peshmerga has caught up with him, and the US authorities have jailed him for possible past terrorist activities. For all his wealth, he is powerless to save his wife.Only one man can help him. Paul Samson, former MI6 agent and a genius at tracking missing persons. He's the obvious choice. There's only one snag. Samson was, and probably still is, in love with Anastasia. If he manages to locate and save her, will it be for Hisami - or himself?

'An espionage master' Charles CummingA terrifying plot to unleash destruction in London. A very unlikely spy. The countdown has begun...Constantine Lindow is waiting for his brother Eamonn outside a central London tube station when a bus turns into the street and explodes. The next day Con is arrested as the prime suspect for the bombing.Con is determined to prove his innocence, but the only way he can do that is to find the real bomber. As he digs deeper, he finds himself confronted by his own brother's secret life - and the cold-blooded killers from his past.The trail leads Con halfway across the world and back to London, where he tracks down a killer with a genius for encryption codes. Only Con can crack the code. Only Con can stop that telephone ringing...'British espionage fiction is the best in the world, and Porter is part of the reason why' Lee Child

'An espionage master' Charles CummingFormer spy Robert Harland returns in this nailbiting thriller set in the aftermath of 9/11The head of the US National Security Agency is assassinated in spectacular fashion at Heathrow.An airport employee and his family are found murdered in their council house in Uxbridge.In New York, a fashionable Upper East Side osteopath receives two postcards showing the Empire State Building.A group of migrant workers are brutally gunned down in Macedonia.The quest to find the link between these apparently random events is pursued by Robert Harland - drawn back to a world he thought he'd left behind - with a dual role for the UN and MI6.

'Compulsively readable' ObserverAn ex British spy finds himself dragged back into the world of espionage after a mysterious plane crash...Robert Harland ended his career as a British spy in an Austrian hospital, after being tortured and beaten by Czech security agents in the last days of the communist regime. He was young enough then to find a new life with the Red Cross and then with the UN.Twelve years later his UN plane crashes in mysterious circumstances at La Guardia airport, New York and Harland is the only survivor. Was it sabotage and, if so, was Harland the target?It is soon clear to Harland that the answers are to be found in his past, a past which, along with its secrets and tradecraft, he has desperately tried to forget. And now the crash has thrown him back into a world of relentless intrigue and mistrust, to his youth, and a life-changing love affair...

'A fascinating switchback roller-coaster of a plot' GuardianNovember 1989. The fall of the Berlin Wall. One man is caught between East and West...The Stasi was among the most sophisticated intelligence organisations in the world, but by the end of the 1980s the Orwellian state of East Germany was collapsing around it.In the last few paranoid weeks of the Communist world one man will carry out one last desperate mission under the very noses of the Stasi. Dr Rudolf Rosenharte is an academic from Dresden and agent for MI6; his controller is Robert Harland.When Rosenharte's security is compromised he is faced with a stark choice: to defect to the West, leaving his beloved family to the mercies of the Stasi, or return to East Germany to carry out the most dangerous assignment of his career. November 1989 will mean the end of communism. But will it mean the end of Rosenharte?As an eyewitness to the incredible scenes of November 1989, Henry Porter brings the fall of the Berlin Wall to vivid life. Now, 30 years on, immerse yourself in a gripping read and allow yourself to be transported back to 'the end of history'.

A chilling police surveillance thriller from 'one of the masters of the genre' Sunday TelegraphAt the funeral the bells of the church were rung open rather than half-muffled, as is usual for the dead. Kate Lockhart has come, along with corporate leaders, ministers and intelligence chiefs, to a beautiful town in the Welsh Marches to mourn her soul mate, David Eyam, the brightest government servant of his generation. All that remains of Eyam are the burnt fragments of a man killed far from home in a horrific explosion.Eyam has left a devastating legacy which certain people at the funeral are desperate to suppress - but Kate Lockhart is equal to Eyam's legacy. She becomes the focus of the state's paranoiac power and leads the local resistance to it, directed from beyond the grave by Eyam.And the state is no match for the genius of the dead...An incredibly prescient thriller set in the aftermath of the Snowden news story from the bestselling author of Brandenburg.