What do you think?
Rate this book
Muir's Gambit: The Spy Game Movie Origin Story
"Pass the popcorn!" AMAZON EDITORS' PICK! Vanessa Cronin, Sr. Editor
"B rilliantly executed...these are first-class spy novels with a smart, gritty atmosphere." - CHARLES CUMMING, New York Times & Sunday Times Best-selling Author of KENNEDY 35 and BOX 88
"There's nobody quite like Beckner. Dialogue so sharp it's like dancing on hot coals. You'll swallow this book whole." - I.S. BERRY, Edgar Award winning Author of THE PEACOCK AND THE SPARROW, A New Yorker & NPR Best Book of the Year
Tom "You don't just trade these people like they're baseball cards! It's not a game!"
Nathan "That's exactly what it is and it's no kid's game either. This is a whole other game. And it's serious. And it's dangerous. And it's not one you want to lose."
It's 48 hours before the events of the movie classic Spy Game and Nathan Muir is about to see his world implode...
Who'd want to assassinate Charlie March? The original Cold War hero. Mentor, brother, confessor-in-chief to Nathan Muir, he's the spy who waltzed in from the cold and wrote a bestseller in the Florida sunshine.
But when a bomb on his yacht puts Charlie March on ice, and his dying words implicate Muir, the CIA dispatch hard-luck Agency lawyer Russell Aiken to force Muir's confession and bury forty years of dirty secrets. By legal means...or otherwise.
"A thinking man's thriller... A real adrenaline blast... I loved it!" ROBERT REDFORD, Spy Game
2023 GOLD MEDAL WINNER - BEST FIRST BOOK - Independent Publishers IPPY Awards
2022 WINNER - SPY THRILLER OF THE YEAR - Best Thrillers Book Awards
2022 BOOK OF THE YEAR, FINALIST - Foreword Reviews INDIES Awards
"Relentlessly tense... This smashing espionage tale kicks off what promises to be a smart, indelible series." Kirkus Reviews
The protégé Muir cast aside in favor of Tom Bishop, Aiken thirsts for payback unaware that Muir launched a different kind of game for him and Bishop long ago, and Aiken has 24 hours to learn its rules, plays, and lethal stakes.
Epic in scope, Muir's Gambit sweeps from the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir to Cyprus terror bombings, Congo coup d'états, Angolan proxy wars, and into the final hours of the Berlin Wall. And for two men untethered from morality, all those lies leave one final night for redemption.
"It's policy versus heart... Will challenge you in ways you haven't been challenged before." TONY SCOTT Spy Game
"A chess game...laid out in the real world of espionage." BRAD PITT Spy Game
Buy Now and return to the world of Nathan Muir and Tom Bishop but be in Spy Game "It's not how you play the game... It's how the game plays you."
"B rilliantly executed...these are first-class spy novels with a smart, gritty atmosphere." - CHARLES CUMMING, New York Times & Sunday Times Best-selling Author of KENNEDY 35 and BOX 88
"There's nobody quite like Beckner. Dialogue so sharp it's like dancing on hot coals. You'll swallow this book whole." - I.S. BERRY, Edgar Award winning Author of THE PEACOCK AND THE SPARROW, A New Yorker & NPR Best Book of the Year
Tom "You don't just trade these people like they're baseball cards! It's not a game!"
Nathan "That's exactly what it is and it's no kid's game either. This is a whole other game. And it's serious. And it's dangerous. And it's not one you want to lose."
It's 48 hours before the events of the movie classic Spy Game and Nathan Muir is about to see his world implode...
Who'd want to assassinate Charlie March? The original Cold War hero. Mentor, brother, confessor-in-chief to Nathan Muir, he's the spy who waltzed in from the cold and wrote a bestseller in the Florida sunshine.
But when a bomb on his yacht puts Charlie March on ice, and his dying words implicate Muir, the CIA dispatch hard-luck Agency lawyer Russell Aiken to force Muir's confession and bury forty years of dirty secrets. By legal means...or otherwise.
"A thinking man's thriller... A real adrenaline blast... I loved it!" ROBERT REDFORD, Spy Game
2023 GOLD MEDAL WINNER - BEST FIRST BOOK - Independent Publishers IPPY Awards
2022 WINNER - SPY THRILLER OF THE YEAR - Best Thrillers Book Awards
2022 BOOK OF THE YEAR, FINALIST - Foreword Reviews INDIES Awards
"Relentlessly tense... This smashing espionage tale kicks off what promises to be a smart, indelible series." Kirkus Reviews
The protégé Muir cast aside in favor of Tom Bishop, Aiken thirsts for payback unaware that Muir launched a different kind of game for him and Bishop long ago, and Aiken has 24 hours to learn its rules, plays, and lethal stakes.
Epic in scope, Muir's Gambit sweeps from the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir to Cyprus terror bombings, Congo coup d'états, Angolan proxy wars, and into the final hours of the Berlin Wall. And for two men untethered from morality, all those lies leave one final night for redemption.
"It's policy versus heart... Will challenge you in ways you haven't been challenged before." TONY SCOTT Spy Game
"A chess game...laid out in the real world of espionage." BRAD PITT Spy Game
Buy Now and return to the world of Nathan Muir and Tom Bishop but be in Spy Game "It's not how you play the game... It's how the game plays you."
Kindle Edition
Published September 16, 2023
105 people are currently reading
28 people want to read
About the author
Michael Frost Beckner
34 books37 followersIn 1989, Michael Frost Beckner's script for Sniper launched a military-thriller franchise now in production on its eighth sequel. Three consecutive record-breaking spec script sales and three films later, Tony Scott directed Beckner's original screenplay "Spy Game." An international blockbuster that paired Robert Redford and Brad Pitt as CIA partners and rivals, it is now a classic in the espionage genre.
Beckner branched into television with his CIA-based drama "The Agency" for CBS, Beckner's pilot predicted Osama bin Laden's terror attack and the War on Terror four months before 9/11. In that series alone, Beckner would go on to predictively dramatize three more future international terror events. Having penned more than twenty-five pilots for network and cable television, miniseries and docudramas, and dozens of original motion picture screenplays, adaptations, and rewrites, he is a Hollywood institution.
In 2001, intrigued by the idea of writing a two-man play focused on the four meetings between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee over their lifetimes, Beckner embarked on a twenty-year research odyssey, advised by more than a dozen of the top Civil War historians in America, which saw him transform his intimate theater piece into the most comprehensive Civil War mini-series ever written. Variously known as "To Appomattox" and "Battle Hymn," and now entitled "A Nation Divided," for the first time, Beckner’s full 12-hour scripts are being released to the public in three volumes.
As a commentator on American espionage, Beckner has appeared on CNN, Fox News, CBS News, TF1 in France, and as a featured guest of Bill Maher on HBO. Now, in conjunction with the twentieth anniversary of "Spy Game," Beckner returns to the world of Nathan Muir and Tom Bishop with the release of his trilogy of Spy Game novels: "Muir's Gambit," "Bishop's Endgame," and "Aiken in Check."
Beckner branched into television with his CIA-based drama "The Agency" for CBS, Beckner's pilot predicted Osama bin Laden's terror attack and the War on Terror four months before 9/11. In that series alone, Beckner would go on to predictively dramatize three more future international terror events. Having penned more than twenty-five pilots for network and cable television, miniseries and docudramas, and dozens of original motion picture screenplays, adaptations, and rewrites, he is a Hollywood institution.
In 2001, intrigued by the idea of writing a two-man play focused on the four meetings between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee over their lifetimes, Beckner embarked on a twenty-year research odyssey, advised by more than a dozen of the top Civil War historians in America, which saw him transform his intimate theater piece into the most comprehensive Civil War mini-series ever written. Variously known as "To Appomattox" and "Battle Hymn," and now entitled "A Nation Divided," for the first time, Beckner’s full 12-hour scripts are being released to the public in three volumes.
As a commentator on American espionage, Beckner has appeared on CNN, Fox News, CBS News, TF1 in France, and as a featured guest of Bill Maher on HBO. Now, in conjunction with the twentieth anniversary of "Spy Game," Beckner returns to the world of Nathan Muir and Tom Bishop with the release of his trilogy of Spy Game novels: "Muir's Gambit," "Bishop's Endgame," and "Aiken in Check."
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 8, 2025
An Amazing Read
I rewatched Spy Game prior to starting My it's Gambit. I tend to read more action oriented novels, but this book pulled me in from the start and didn't let go. I came away with a deeper appreciation for the movie and I'm on board for book #2!
I rewatched Spy Game prior to starting My it's Gambit. I tend to read more action oriented novels, but this book pulled me in from the start and didn't let go. I came away with a deeper appreciation for the movie and I'm on board for book #2!
May 21, 2024
Incoherent.
January 15, 2025
HIGHLY recommend!!!!
This book is highly recommended for anyone who loves spy fiction and great writing. A little off in ways you will see bu damnit. A great FN read!!!
This book is highly recommended for anyone who loves spy fiction and great writing. A little off in ways you will see bu damnit. A great FN read!!!
April 5, 2025
The novel was good but jumped back and forward in time and was hard to follow but provided an effective back story for Nathan Muir,
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews