Russian expert OWEN MATTHEWS is the author of two highly praised works of non-fiction, Stalin's Children and An Impeccable Spy, and a novel - the acclaimed thriller Black Sun. As a war correspondent, he covered conflicts in Bosnia, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Iraq and Ukraine, and for ten years he was was Newsweek's Moscow bureau chief. He divides his time between Oxford and Moscow.
This is Robert Harris storytelling territory and is told with equal panache and authenticity. There could be no higher praise. * DAILY MAIL * Tense, exciting and authentic. Every bit as good as Black Sun. -- CHARLES CUMMING, author of Box 88 His feel for the period is a great pleasure to read. Russet October. * THE TIMES * A superlative follow-up to Black Sun . . . With some particularly tense scenes set inside submarines that put Tom Clancy to shame in their claustrophobic realism, you have a humdinger of a Cold War thriller . . . Gripping and unmistakably authentic. -- Maxim Jakubowski * CRIME TIME * This dynamic thriller skilfully weaves its story around one of the 20th-century's most tense moments, the Cuban missile crisis. * BBC HISTORY *