SPIES: Three standalone books with a common theme

by Neil Howarth

Three standalone books with a common theme.THE DOOMSDAY LEGACY The key to the world's salvation - or to its darkest nightmare?A DEADLY THREAT When his uncle, a retired CIA agent, turns up dead on a train in Eastern Europe, international war photographer, Mason Bradley is caught in the middle. The Russian Mafiya and shady factions of the CIA believe the former agent was carrying something of vital importance. But where is it now? They suspect that Bradley knows the answer, only he doesn’t, and his only way to stay alive is to find it and use it as a bargaining chip for his life.A DARK SECRET Bradley begins a journey into a shady world where money, greed, and deception, are the deadly currency in the battle for ultimate power, a world of dark secrets, where life can be snuffed out with the snap of unseen fingers. The action moves from the United States, through Europe to St. Petersburg, and the heart of the Russian Mafiya, then to the far north, to the frozen wasteland of Siberia, to a secret still kept long after the demise of the Soviet Union. Bradley struggles to stay one step ahead of his pursuers, as one by one, his every avenue of escape is closed. But perhaps Mason Bradley has some dark secrets of his own.THE FOO SHENG KEYThe Middle East teetering on the brink of war. One man willing to push them over the edge. A man with great wealth and power, prepared to plunge the whole world into chaos in the simple, selfish act of revenge.And a twelve year old boy who stands in his way.JANUARY'S CHILDNever Forgive. Never Forget.His old life serving his country was little about honor and much about subterfuge and lies. About removing obstacles, whatever that took. He was good at it. Robert Walker thought he had left it all behind him. But someone had not forgotten. Someone has waited a long time to settle an outstanding debt.They took the thing most precious to him and Walker will do whatever it takes to get her back.

1482 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 19, 2023

About the author

I'm constantly, looking for stories, looking for strange, shady, tales that are true, and more important from the story perspective, that could have been true. I'm always treading that fine line between what happened and what could have happened, between people who actually existed and who might have been. I believe it's somewhere in the shadows, in the nooks and crannies between these elements that the great stories are found.

I've always been a scribbler as far back as I can remember. The Doomsday Legacy was my first published novel but not the first I have written. In fact I have a number of half written attempts that have been pushed aside over the years as my 'proper job' demanded more and more of my time.

I remember my first completed novel, 'The Song of the Nightingale'. It was my attempt at the great spy novel, a sort of homage to the 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' (still one of my all-time favourite books). It was a gritty spy story set in Berlin, amidst the chill of the cold war. Unfortunately, as I was typing the last pages, they were bulldozing down the Berlin wall, so that one melted pretty quickly and never saw the light of day. Still, writing is what you are, not what you do. It's never going to go away, so you just keep on trying.

As a young, Naval Radio Officer, then as a computer specialist for a multi-national company, I travelled the world and serviced many military, secret research and laboratory installations. When I started out as a computer engineer, all the military and secret installations in the south of England were on my patch: Porton Down (the Government bio-warfare laboratories), AWRE (Atomic Weapons Research Establishment), and Marconi Space and Research Laboratories, just to name a few. Whilst living in Eastern Europe, I came in contact with the real life Russian Mafiya and shady characters dealing in dodgy 'semi-precious metals' - a euphemism for anything coming out the back door of former Soviet military installations.

With the increase of public surveillance from organizations like the NSA and GCHQ, I often wonder what would happen if they looked at my browsing and download history!!!

I'm still out there looking - secrets, people in the shadows, story gems. I'm constantly searching. If you're interested why not join me on that journey ( www.neilhowarth.com ).