Concern: A black-ops investigator uncovers an espionage conspiracy rooted in quantum code

by Christopher Bentley

When a St Petersburg restaurant is ripped apart by a bomb, consulting mathematician Marc Naedorf is dragged back into the shadow world he thought he’d left behind. Once an intelligence analyst, now an outsider with a gift for spotting hidden patterns, he finds himself at the heart of an international mystery where every answer raises new questions.

With MI5 and CIA espionage networks looming in the background, Naedorf follows a trail that winds from the Russian mafia to the boardrooms of multinational corporations. Superpowers are vying for quantum computing supremacy, cyber hackers are breaching global systems, and a covert conglomerate is manipulating markets through rogue AI and corporate conspiracy. From climate change profiteers to ruthless mercenaries, Naedorf must navigate a labyrinth of deception where even allies can’t be trusted. Protecting him from the shadows is the Englishman known only as MYRMIDON — a lethal guardian and black ops specialist whose silence hides deadly intent.

What begins with a single explosion unravels into a high-tech conspiracy with stakes far beyond one man’s survival. Somewhere in the data, buried deep in quantum code, lies an enemy unlike any he has faced before — an enemy that doesn’t think like him.

377 pages, Paperback

Published October 6, 2025

About the author

About a hundred years ago, give or take, Chris blagged his way into Cambridge to read Natural Sciences and Computer Science. He's spent much of his career since then in corporate life; a great deal of it in the travel industry. He's an MBA, with Distinction, and for over a decade he's written on emerging technologies and corporate strategy for a professional audience. He began studying martial arts when he was eight years old, to get out of piano lessons. He's still at it, and he still can't play the piano.

He lives in the Heavy Woollen District of West Yorkshire with his wife, Sue, his Parson Jack Russell terrier, Fudd, and his gravel bike.

CONCERN is his debut novel, and the beginning of a series featuring Marc Naedorf.

Reviews

[PamG · Rating 3 out of 5]

Concern by Christopher Bentley is his debut novel and the first book in the Marc Naedorf series. It’s a high-tech espionage techno-thriller that centers around artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

When a bomb goes off in a restaurant in Saint Petersburg, Russia, Marc Naedorf is brought in investigate by the father of one of the victims. He finds cyber hackers are breaching global systems and global financial markets are being manipulated. Marc was once an intelligence agent and has a gift for pattern recognition and using it to analyze complex data.

The author blends science and fiction into an exciting thriller. However, the technical detail was overly drawn out and adversely affected the flow at times. Despite this, the story gains momentum gradually, the main characters are fascinating, and the novel is thought-provoking. The book has several settings besides the one in Russia, with most of it set in London as well as several towns in northern England. Other scenes are in Greece, Brussels, California, and Chicago.

Overall, this book was suspenseful, intriguing with fascinating topics that captured this reader’s curiosity, and has an action-packed ending. The author also sets up the thread for the next book in the series. I’m looking forward to reading more by this author.

I purchased a copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. Publication date was October 7, 2025.
----------------------
My 3.42 rounded to 3 stars review is coming soon.

[Rae Boughton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was gifted this book by a friend. It is not the sort of book I would choose to read on my own, so I was surprised by how much I ended up enjoying it. I would love to read more books by this author.

Things I liked:
The explanations of the science and technology featured in the book were easy to follow, and told me everything I needed to know to understand the story.
I like the way “AI” was depicted in the story. Particularly, I liked that Alonzo never gained consciousness. I think the author did a good job showing different ways that LLMs are harmful, without being too on-the-nose about it.
My favourite part of the book was chapters 23-25. I think the reason it worked so well was that I was told enough to know that something bad was about to happen, which allowed for tension and anticipation to build, but it led me to believe that only one person was going to die. This way the scale of the tragedy still caught me off guard, so there was shock as well.
I liked the transhumanist cult. They were fun to hate. I wish they got to do more.

Things I disliked:
The first 3 chapters were hard to get through and I think the information in them could have been told to the reader in better ways. I would have liked to get to Naedorf’s perspective sooner.
In some places the exposition felt clumsy. Often important information was told to the reader through a conversation between 2 people who both already knew the information and also knew that the other person already knew the information. This dialogue didn’t feel like how people would actually talk to each other.
The Climax of the book didn’t feel very climactic. I think this is because we only learn what the plan to stop Alonzo was after it has already been completed.
I would have liked to know what the characters were feeling more often, and I also wish we got to see characters building friendships with each other. By the end of the book it felt like I still knew barely anything about them. I understand that keeping the characters mysterious was probably the author's intention and that this isn’t the genre to be looking for complex character relations in, but it still would have made me enjoy the book more.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

When a targeted explosion in a St Petersburg restaurant kills a computer engineer and the son of an aviation and engineering tycoon, consultant mathematician Marc Naedorf is called back into a shadowy world he thought he’d left behind, to investigate. Protected by a black-ops specialist, he follows a long and winding trail into the world of AI and quantum computing and into a labyrinth of deception and high-tech corruption that threatens the very survival of mankind.

I found this high-tech, black-ops thriller an interesting and thought provoking read. The author lays out the plot very clearly so that I had no trouble following what was happening. The main characters were all were depicted and likeable with real lives and lifestyles. However, I did find the writing very tech heavy with too much explanation and felt it slowed the pace and my reading rate as well as the development of suspense and tension. Towards the end, there was more action and the suspense did build towards a dramatic if sudden ending. Readers interested in the future of AI and quantum computing and enjoy a techno thriller would be most likely to enjoy this. 3.5★

[Adrian Nixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is brilliant. A great read with plot lines I have never encountered before. If you are looking for a thrilling read with real depth that fires your curiosity and engages your mind then this is the one book you must read.