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Elliot Kane #1
A Shadow Intelligence
AN NPR BEST BOOK OF 2020
“An absorbing, superbly written novel likely to stand as one of the best spy novels of the year.”
—Kirkus, starred review
Elliot Kane reflects the dark side of MI6. He is the instrument of an agency that puts two years and more than £100K into training recruits to steal cars, hack bank accounts, strip weapons, and employ everything from blackmail to improvised explosives in service of Crown and Country. After fifteen years overseas embroiled in events that never make the news, Kane is a ghost in his own life, assuming and shedding personalities with each new cover story.
When the woman he loves, another operative named Joanna Lake, vanishes in Kazakhstan, she leaves behind an astonishing video of Kane in a room he’s never entered—sending Kane off the rails to find her. While he’s well versed in modern psychological warfare, snowbound, landlocked Kazakhstan presents unique challenges. In a country poised between China, Russia, and the West, between dictatorship and democracy, between state intelligence and increasingly powerful private corporations, it’s impossible to work out who is manipulating whom. Drawn ever deeper into a realm of deception and conflicting agendas, Kane moves from merely spying to steering the action. But Kane’s not the only one trying to figure out where Joanna Lake has gone, or what she learned before disappearing.
“Sharp writing and provocative content.” —Wall Street Journal
“Elegant and compulsive.” —Ian Rankin
“An absorbing, superbly written novel likely to stand as one of the best spy novels of the year.”
—Kirkus, starred review
Elliot Kane reflects the dark side of MI6. He is the instrument of an agency that puts two years and more than £100K into training recruits to steal cars, hack bank accounts, strip weapons, and employ everything from blackmail to improvised explosives in service of Crown and Country. After fifteen years overseas embroiled in events that never make the news, Kane is a ghost in his own life, assuming and shedding personalities with each new cover story.
When the woman he loves, another operative named Joanna Lake, vanishes in Kazakhstan, she leaves behind an astonishing video of Kane in a room he’s never entered—sending Kane off the rails to find her. While he’s well versed in modern psychological warfare, snowbound, landlocked Kazakhstan presents unique challenges. In a country poised between China, Russia, and the West, between dictatorship and democracy, between state intelligence and increasingly powerful private corporations, it’s impossible to work out who is manipulating whom. Drawn ever deeper into a realm of deception and conflicting agendas, Kane moves from merely spying to steering the action. But Kane’s not the only one trying to figure out where Joanna Lake has gone, or what she learned before disappearing.
“Sharp writing and provocative content.” —Wall Street Journal
“Elegant and compulsive.” —Ian Rankin
368 pages, Paperback
First published May 2, 2019
About the author
Oliver Harris
19 books279 followersOliver Harris's novels to date are The Hollow Man, Deep Shelter, The House of Fame, A Season in Exile - all featuring Detective Constable Nick Belsey - and A Shadow Intelligence, Ascension and The Shame Archive featuring MI6 officer Elliot Kane.
Oliver was born in north London. He has an MA in Shakespeare Studies from UCL, and an MA in creative writing from UEA. His PhD on psychoanalysis and Greek philosophy was published by Routledge in 2016 (Lacan's Return to Antiquity). He currently teaches creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.
His Facebook page can be found by clicking here.
Oliver was born in north London. He has an MA in Shakespeare Studies from UCL, and an MA in creative writing from UEA. His PhD on psychoanalysis and Greek philosophy was published by Routledge in 2016 (Lacan's Return to Antiquity). He currently teaches creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.
His Facebook page can be found by clicking here.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 258 reviews
April 16, 2021
I thought A Shadow Intelligence was excellent. It is literate, exciting, very well researched and convincing.
Elliot Kane is an agent for British Intelligence. He is something of a superman, in that he speaks lots of arcane languages well enough to recognise regional dialects, has all sorts of technical and semi-criminal skills, knows a huge number of extremely influential people and so on. However, I didn’t find this too far-fetched; his background is sketched in skilfully and convincingly enough to account for his current abilities.
Kane is suddenly pulled out of a long-term spying mission in the Middle East to find that a colleague and lover is missing. He discovers enough to follow her to Kazakhstan where a very complex web of intrigue emerges in which Oliver Harris paints a very realistic picture of the clandestine complexities of modern geopolitics. Huge multinationals, governments, private security companies, local warlords and so on all jockey, cheat and lie for their own advantage and Kane becomes caught in the middle.
It’s a somewhat labyrinthine plot with a lot of characters and organisations in play, which can become a little bewildering at times, but it’s also very convincing. Harris portrays the background in Kazakhstan excellently. He is also very, very good on the information war and the use of fake imagery and stories to foment unrest and to justify unjustifiable actions. The writing is very good, the action plausible and the characters generally very believable. I was thoroughly engrossed and also relieved by the absence of many clichés of the genre. It was an excellent read with some real content, too, and I will definitely read Ascension, the next in the series. Warmly recommended.
Elliot Kane is an agent for British Intelligence. He is something of a superman, in that he speaks lots of arcane languages well enough to recognise regional dialects, has all sorts of technical and semi-criminal skills, knows a huge number of extremely influential people and so on. However, I didn’t find this too far-fetched; his background is sketched in skilfully and convincingly enough to account for his current abilities.
Kane is suddenly pulled out of a long-term spying mission in the Middle East to find that a colleague and lover is missing. He discovers enough to follow her to Kazakhstan where a very complex web of intrigue emerges in which Oliver Harris paints a very realistic picture of the clandestine complexities of modern geopolitics. Huge multinationals, governments, private security companies, local warlords and so on all jockey, cheat and lie for their own advantage and Kane becomes caught in the middle.
It’s a somewhat labyrinthine plot with a lot of characters and organisations in play, which can become a little bewildering at times, but it’s also very convincing. Harris portrays the background in Kazakhstan excellently. He is also very, very good on the information war and the use of fake imagery and stories to foment unrest and to justify unjustifiable actions. The writing is very good, the action plausible and the characters generally very believable. I was thoroughly engrossed and also relieved by the absence of many clichés of the genre. It was an excellent read with some real content, too, and I will definitely read Ascension, the next in the series. Warmly recommended.
March 6, 2019
Not read anything by this author before and this wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I was expecting an intelligent spy story, less about car chases and shoot-outs but this is overly complex and more hard work than it should be.
Elliot Kane is an MI6 field agent, returning from a blown mission he finds his girlfriend (also an agent) is missing and his only clue is a mysterious file he has been sent. Elliot goes off piste and heads out to Kazakhstan to search for her, which is where most of this complex story is set.
In the capital Elliot finds that a lot of people have got their fingers in the pie that is Kazakhstan and the Russians are massing on the border. Information is being controlled and manipulated so the truth is hard to pin down, as is what his girlfriend might have got caught up in.
Far too many moving parts to keep track of. The tradecraft and the manipulation of information is interesting and topical but the author has created something that is too complex and that doesn’t flow well.
Elliot Kane is an MI6 field agent, returning from a blown mission he finds his girlfriend (also an agent) is missing and his only clue is a mysterious file he has been sent. Elliot goes off piste and heads out to Kazakhstan to search for her, which is where most of this complex story is set.
In the capital Elliot finds that a lot of people have got their fingers in the pie that is Kazakhstan and the Russians are massing on the border. Information is being controlled and manipulated so the truth is hard to pin down, as is what his girlfriend might have got caught up in.
Far too many moving parts to keep track of. The tradecraft and the manipulation of information is interesting and topical but the author has created something that is too complex and that doesn’t flow well.
July 5, 2020
3.5 Stars.
For the most part I enjoyed this. It’s well written, propulsive, and intriguingly complex.
Unfortunately it’s also very difficult to follow if you are not acutely aware of the political situation in the region.
Some of the confusion sown by this story is deliberate, meant to obfuscate for dramatic effect. All of the “whose side is this person REALLY on?” and shifting loyalties are generally welcome elements in a spy novel, adding to the mystery.
But when paired with a setting in which the geopolitical situation isn’t particularly well explained, they further the confusion for the reader.
I’ll accept some responsibility for this as a reader (my knowledge of The -Stans is largely limited to the fact that they were part of the former USSR. I fully admit that I’m not sure I could distinguish them geographically from one another). However, there seems to be a lot of assumed knowledge about regional politics that I don’t believe to be commonly held by American or British readers. Harris could have given us some basics to make the narrative more easily digestible.
And while Kane is certainly likable enough and an intriguing fellow, he lacks the kind of character development that makes us want to really rally behind him as a hero.
Fortunately, despite the confusing politics and bland protagonist, the pacing and atmosphere ensure that A Shadow Intelligence is still worthy of a read. I’d happily read a follow up, but would hope that Harris gives us a little more backstory on Kane and a lot more clarity on the politics of the plot.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
For the most part I enjoyed this. It’s well written, propulsive, and intriguingly complex.
Unfortunately it’s also very difficult to follow if you are not acutely aware of the political situation in the region.
Some of the confusion sown by this story is deliberate, meant to obfuscate for dramatic effect. All of the “whose side is this person REALLY on?” and shifting loyalties are generally welcome elements in a spy novel, adding to the mystery.
But when paired with a setting in which the geopolitical situation isn’t particularly well explained, they further the confusion for the reader.
I’ll accept some responsibility for this as a reader (my knowledge of The -Stans is largely limited to the fact that they were part of the former USSR. I fully admit that I’m not sure I could distinguish them geographically from one another). However, there seems to be a lot of assumed knowledge about regional politics that I don’t believe to be commonly held by American or British readers. Harris could have given us some basics to make the narrative more easily digestible.
And while Kane is certainly likable enough and an intriguing fellow, he lacks the kind of character development that makes us want to really rally behind him as a hero.
Fortunately, despite the confusing politics and bland protagonist, the pacing and atmosphere ensure that A Shadow Intelligence is still worthy of a read. I’d happily read a follow up, but would hope that Harris gives us a little more backstory on Kane and a lot more clarity on the politics of the plot.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
March 3, 2026
One of my new favorite espionage novelists.
January 15, 2019
Extremely pacy, edge of your seat in places and satisfyingly deep at the same time. So much insight into the scary world of espionage and state manipulation.
March 30, 2020
I received a free publisher's advance review copy.
A couple of weeks ago, I read Olen Steinhauer’s new book, The Last Tourist, a stellar espionage thriller in which wealthy corporate actors, not countries or terrorist organizations, are the bad guys. It’s a fast-paced and complex plot, designed to reflect the modern world, where the super-rich operate on a worldwide basis for their own advantage, without regard to borders, political stability or human rights.
Sounds kind of similar to this book, doesn’t it? The excellence of The Last Tourist probably has something to do with why I couldn’t finish A Shadow Intelligence. Steinhauer really knows how pull off a dizzyingly complex plot with loads of characters. Harris just isn’t up to that standard. His plotting is murky and his prose is a slog. Maybe it gets better, but I just don’t have the will to keep wading through it to find out.
A couple of weeks ago, I read Olen Steinhauer’s new book, The Last Tourist, a stellar espionage thriller in which wealthy corporate actors, not countries or terrorist organizations, are the bad guys. It’s a fast-paced and complex plot, designed to reflect the modern world, where the super-rich operate on a worldwide basis for their own advantage, without regard to borders, political stability or human rights.
Sounds kind of similar to this book, doesn’t it? The excellence of The Last Tourist probably has something to do with why I couldn’t finish A Shadow Intelligence. Steinhauer really knows how pull off a dizzyingly complex plot with loads of characters. Harris just isn’t up to that standard. His plotting is murky and his prose is a slog. Maybe it gets better, but I just don’t have the will to keep wading through it to find out.
January 16, 2021
I liked parts of this book and felt it had real potential to be a page-turner, but the plot gets too bogged down with details. It’s hard to tell what’s important to commit to memory and what isn’t. There are far too many secondary characters who contribute nothing but exposition. I have it three stars because the book does have flashes of brilliance where it unfolds like a great spy movie. I also appreciated it was set in Kazakhstan. Having lived in Astana (now Nur-Sultan), I enjoyed the descriptions of places I know, as well as the accurate portrayal of the bone-chilling cold on the desolate steppe in winter.
March 13, 2026
Although it was beautifully written, of course the author is Oliver Harris, it is nevertheless a slow read unlike his Nick Belsey’s series. I know we are introducing the character but the author describes the most insignificant things in detail. It took me a while to get into the rhythm of the plot. It is informative, well written and has details of political movements, countries, spy gadgets and the government lust for power that will appeal to anyone that like me like espionage thrillers.
Lack of dialogue made the reading too dry and didactic at least the first 120 pages. It appears to be more informative than entertaining. To understand the craziness of the far right movement in the United States you have to understand Russian propaganda and this book is great at shining a light on disinformation and the tools these countries use as well as how and why it originated. Due to the government United States has right now, this book is more relevant than when it was first published in 2019.
Lack of dialogue made the reading too dry and didactic at least the first 120 pages. It appears to be more informative than entertaining. To understand the craziness of the far right movement in the United States you have to understand Russian propaganda and this book is great at shining a light on disinformation and the tools these countries use as well as how and why it originated. Due to the government United States has right now, this book is more relevant than when it was first published in 2019.
June 11, 2021
It pains me to give this a lowly 2-star review. The writing probably deserves 3 stars at the least; it’s sophisticated and stylish. Unfortunately, it’s also dry and—dare I say it—tedious? For a spy story, that’s the kiss of death. If I didn’t know it was by the same guy that writes the fab Nick Belsey books, I wouldn’t’ve been bothered to finish this. Elliot Kane is no James Bond, not even close to George Smiley tho’ you can see the Le Carre shadow falling across the pages of Harris’s novel. Shadow Intelligence is set in Kazakhstan, a pawn in the global chess match between superpowers, “MI6 stirring Central Asia against Russia.” One of their own, a top psy-ops operator named Joanna Lake, has gone off the rails and vanished but not before sending Elliot a cryptic video clip from Kazakhstan. He goes after her, sensing she’s in danger, using all the tricks in the contemporary spy-craft trade to find out what she learned before disappearing. But the novel bogs down in political muck and dark money and foreign officers and social-media manipulators and terrorist networks that leave the reader feeling the same vertigo Elliot feels, standing over a pit of his own making, unable to discern the knot of connections at the bottom.
May 15, 2024
Disappointed by this ngl. Without the interesting setting of Kazakhstan, which was extremely well-researched and kept my interest throughout, this plot is overly complex without leaving enough hints for the reader to grasp what is going on.
I felt that I had to finish it to find out what happened to Joanna, but the writing style and vast cast list of characters left so many avenues under-explored, made worse by the plot. Even those character arcs which were resolved were too complicated to properly grasp the nuance behind their stories.
Overall, the geopolitical background to this novel made it an interesting concept which did keep me reading, albeit reluctantly, although overall this story was let down quite badly by its execution.
I felt that I had to finish it to find out what happened to Joanna, but the writing style and vast cast list of characters left so many avenues under-explored, made worse by the plot. Even those character arcs which were resolved were too complicated to properly grasp the nuance behind their stories.
Overall, the geopolitical background to this novel made it an interesting concept which did keep me reading, albeit reluctantly, although overall this story was let down quite badly by its execution.
March 2, 2021
I chose to read this book because it was clear from the reviews that I had read ahead of time that this was a particularly intelligently written spy novel. I wanted something that was well written and would give me a perspective on the genre that I might find refreshing.
Well, I can't say that the book didn't deliver on both counts, but the reason this book proved a bit burdensome is because it was simply too smart for it's own good. I'm hesitant to make such a comment, but if you look through other reviews, you'll see I'm not alone. If I were to create a title for this review it would be...The Spy Who Knew Too Much, and it showed.
I like a smart and capable protagonist, but the geopolitical machinations that fuel this book felt like a college course that hopefully offered an open book test at the end. I like to think I come to the table with some grasp of current and recent past events as they relate to Asia and Eastern Europe, but this as a deep dive and our hero is unbelievably talented in all matters for all distant, obscure corners of the world. He knows the players that no one else would know. He speaks the languages that can get him anywhere, and I mean anywhere.
There's a lot to like about this novel and as much of a slog as it was in spots, I return to the elements that led me to these pages. This is a very smart writer who won't dumb down the plot or background to sell books. This is apparently the start of a series and I have a feeling I'll be back for more.
Well, I can't say that the book didn't deliver on both counts, but the reason this book proved a bit burdensome is because it was simply too smart for it's own good. I'm hesitant to make such a comment, but if you look through other reviews, you'll see I'm not alone. If I were to create a title for this review it would be...The Spy Who Knew Too Much, and it showed.
I like a smart and capable protagonist, but the geopolitical machinations that fuel this book felt like a college course that hopefully offered an open book test at the end. I like to think I come to the table with some grasp of current and recent past events as they relate to Asia and Eastern Europe, but this as a deep dive and our hero is unbelievably talented in all matters for all distant, obscure corners of the world. He knows the players that no one else would know. He speaks the languages that can get him anywhere, and I mean anywhere.
There's a lot to like about this novel and as much of a slog as it was in spots, I return to the elements that led me to these pages. This is a very smart writer who won't dumb down the plot or background to sell books. This is apparently the start of a series and I have a feeling I'll be back for more.
May 13, 2020
3.5 stars. I enjoy a good spy novel - this one took me a bit to get into, probably because most of it is set in Kazakhstan and I know very little about the geopolitical situation in that part of the world. Once I got the gist of it, it was a compelling read. When you read spy novels that were written even 20 years ago, social media and how it is used is not a factor. In contemporary spy novels, social media and how it can be used to influence large groups of people, stir up discontent and anger, and to push groups of people towards conflict is a central theme. There was a line in here about how people are being manipulated through social media, something to the effect of 'people don't even need to believe it is true for it to make them angry', that seemed particularly relevant in today's world.
August 11, 2026
Elliot Kane, MI6 spy, is sent a recording of himself set two weeks into the future. He's standing in a room in a nondescript hotel in Kazakhstan, talking to a stranger with a briefcase in his hand. It's uncannily realistic, but he swears he's never seen the man nor been to Astana. What follows is a deepdive into modern day international espionage. Every actor is hiding something, be it friend or foe. When personal and private interests collide, a slow simmering struggle threatens to boil over into a full blown conflict.
This was my first foray into spy fiction and certainly won't be my last. I really enjoyed it, everything felt just real enough that it could viably happen in the present day political climate. The way misinformation and deepfakes are used to push conflict and propaganda has only become more relevant since the book's publishing. It's the moments where glimpses of Elliott's psychology are revealed that give a human dimension to this book (which can otherwise feel a bit lacking). The toll it takes to know that you're expendable and can never be yourself is part of what makes spycraft so interesting to me. Not a very action-packed book but it did keep me hooked throughout.
3.5/5 stars
This was my first foray into spy fiction and certainly won't be my last. I really enjoyed it, everything felt just real enough that it could viably happen in the present day political climate. The way misinformation and deepfakes are used to push conflict and propaganda has only become more relevant since the book's publishing. It's the moments where glimpses of Elliott's psychology are revealed that give a human dimension to this book (which can otherwise feel a bit lacking). The toll it takes to know that you're expendable and can never be yourself is part of what makes spycraft so interesting to me. Not a very action-packed book but it did keep me hooked throughout.
3.5/5 stars
February 11, 2026
3.5/5. Modern spy thriller that hits a little too close to home with its plot involving state-run psyops and AI deepfakes intended to stir an international incident. I enjoyed the read and learning about an area of the world in Kazakhstan (or at least a version of it). On the negative side of the ledger, the story got lost for me with too many players involved. By the end, I felt a little empty about the resolution and the characterization of the protagonist. I might check out this series again, but not right away.
October 27, 2025
4.5 — This was electric. Felt smart, ~thrilling~, relevant - everything you could ask for in a thriller!! I’ll be honest and admit I got a little lost in the sheer number of white male British names to keep track of, but it felt almost intentional in that they’re all bad. I now know infinitely more about Khazakstan (did you know it’s the 9th biggest country in the world), and I think I’m better off for it
January 25, 2026
Fun and intricate spy thriller. I found myself looking up the real places in Kazakhstan. The book got me curious! Will definitely read more by this author.
March 20, 2020
My first rating, 4.5 stars. Although I'm not good at handling any kind of numerical evaluation system (which is unfortunately clearly necessary).
A rare thriller on Central Asian geopolitics. Lots of proper names make it at least seemingly well-researched, which worked pretty well on me. And it's a traditional one point of view story centered on solving a mystery, not a multi-POVs (or at least, two) from all sides story I'm used to as in most techno-thrillers, which is understandable since the author wrote detective stories. It would be on my top ten if I was good at ranking, which I'm not. But there are some holes in the geopolitical plot depicted.
The plot is presumably proposed to the British government but was deemed too aggressive. A private sector mogul picked it up, bought a oil company, and assembled a list consists of a public relations company and some private security contractors to make it happen: pretend to find a new mega oilfield in Kazakhstan, then stir things up in the country using a mix of information warfare, including an enhanced version of deep fake that seems omnipotent, and false-flag operations, climaxed by assembling a Islamic terrorist organization using links provided by ex-SIS (sorry I always prefer this appellation to MI6) intelligence officers, instruct it to strike in Russia to arouse Russians' hatred to it and give them a justification for later actions, then strike two blows in Kazakhstan, in one of which claims its president Nazarbayev (should I feel surprised that the real name is used?), to seduce (in the information operations, they use bloggers to publish pro-Russia materials, this could be interpreted as making the Russians believe they could use it as an advantage) the Russians into install a pro-Russia leader and even invading the country to put Russia into a more intensified geopolitical conflict with its ally, China, and hopefully distract them from Middle East.
But could the discovery of an oil field, with all its facilities installed, be faked? I don't know the cost, but I tend to answer "no".
And in fact, there are unnecessary maneuvers. For example, the pro-Russia information campaign could be removed and still instigate a strong Russian response if Kremlin wants one. An Islamic terrorist insurgency is enough. And it is never clarified that whether a faked proactive annexation by Russia is intended to boost Russophobic sentiment in the West. So it could well be a subterfuge just to bewilder the readers. Understandable and as I explained above, fortunately logical.
And then comes the faked video of the protagonist (which is to frame the UK of supporting the Islamists) and later the revelation of protagonist's identity as an SIS officer by the information campaign. What does these mean? To deliberately sabotage the UK-Russia relations? Or maybe there are further considerations to manipulate British internal politics that is unspecified in the story? So, this is too abrupt a plot device to draw the protagonist into the investigation.
The logic chain of Hugh Stevenson's sudden murder and Stefan's fate was not clearly explained, which was in accordance with the fog of war of first person narrative, but left me disappointed.
There are other questions, maybe because I didn't read attentively enough or I'm not clever enough. The true nature of Moscow's Chief Ideologue on Expansionism Vladislav Vishinsky (I thought there's only Vyshinsky though, there's an и/ы distinction) is also interesting. It is hard for me to determine whether he's really a British agent, although I prefer not. Maybe it's in protagonist's disinformation that he's a British agent, although one of Vishinsky's people truly had taken Joanna a ride and he himself had said something mysterious more than ten years ago in a strange encounter with the protagonist in Baku, and I'm not so happy about his supposed final abduction. It's too easy if it was caused by a piece of disinformation, in contrast to the strong main part.
Finally, in the end, after the protagonist's name and face gone viral everywhere on the Internet, he dared to travel freely instead of subject to an official escort. So maybe he was good at makeup then?
A rare thriller on Central Asian geopolitics. Lots of proper names make it at least seemingly well-researched, which worked pretty well on me. And it's a traditional one point of view story centered on solving a mystery, not a multi-POVs (or at least, two) from all sides story I'm used to as in most techno-thrillers, which is understandable since the author wrote detective stories. It would be on my top ten if I was good at ranking, which I'm not. But there are some holes in the geopolitical plot depicted.
The plot is presumably proposed to the British government but was deemed too aggressive. A private sector mogul picked it up, bought a oil company, and assembled a list consists of a public relations company and some private security contractors to make it happen: pretend to find a new mega oilfield in Kazakhstan, then stir things up in the country using a mix of information warfare, including an enhanced version of deep fake that seems omnipotent, and false-flag operations, climaxed by assembling a Islamic terrorist organization using links provided by ex-SIS (sorry I always prefer this appellation to MI6) intelligence officers, instruct it to strike in Russia to arouse Russians' hatred to it and give them a justification for later actions, then strike two blows in Kazakhstan, in one of which claims its president Nazarbayev (should I feel surprised that the real name is used?), to seduce (in the information operations, they use bloggers to publish pro-Russia materials, this could be interpreted as making the Russians believe they could use it as an advantage) the Russians into install a pro-Russia leader and even invading the country to put Russia into a more intensified geopolitical conflict with its ally, China, and hopefully distract them from Middle East.
But could the discovery of an oil field, with all its facilities installed, be faked? I don't know the cost, but I tend to answer "no".
And in fact, there are unnecessary maneuvers. For example, the pro-Russia information campaign could be removed and still instigate a strong Russian response if Kremlin wants one. An Islamic terrorist insurgency is enough. And it is never clarified that whether a faked proactive annexation by Russia is intended to boost Russophobic sentiment in the West. So it could well be a subterfuge just to bewilder the readers. Understandable and as I explained above, fortunately logical.
And then comes the faked video of the protagonist (which is to frame the UK of supporting the Islamists) and later the revelation of protagonist's identity as an SIS officer by the information campaign. What does these mean? To deliberately sabotage the UK-Russia relations? Or maybe there are further considerations to manipulate British internal politics that is unspecified in the story? So, this is too abrupt a plot device to draw the protagonist into the investigation.
The logic chain of Hugh Stevenson's sudden murder and Stefan's fate was not clearly explained, which was in accordance with the fog of war of first person narrative, but left me disappointed.
There are other questions, maybe because I didn't read attentively enough or I'm not clever enough. The true nature of Moscow's Chief Ideologue on Expansionism Vladislav Vishinsky (I thought there's only Vyshinsky though, there's an и/ы distinction) is also interesting. It is hard for me to determine whether he's really a British agent, although I prefer not. Maybe it's in protagonist's disinformation that he's a British agent, although one of Vishinsky's people truly had taken Joanna a ride and he himself had said something mysterious more than ten years ago in a strange encounter with the protagonist in Baku, and I'm not so happy about his supposed final abduction. It's too easy if it was caused by a piece of disinformation, in contrast to the strong main part.
Finally, in the end, after the protagonist's name and face gone viral everywhere on the Internet, he dared to travel freely instead of subject to an official escort. So maybe he was good at makeup then?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 8, 2022
This is a real curate's egg of a book. Some aspects of it are frighteningly prescient, whilst some aspects are incredibly dull.
Starting with the positive, the book came out in 2019, nearly three years before Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but it predicts with jaw-dropping accuracy many aspects of the invasion, albeit transposed to Kazakhstan. So much of what I've seen unfolding in Ukraine was anticipated by this book: the drive to restore the Soviet Empire; massive online disinformation projects spread by a mixture of bots and real people; fake news to ferment anger within the indigenous Russian population towards their 'host' country and to garner support in Russia for intervention; the suggestion that the target country doesn't even really exist as a concept beyond its establishment as a geopolitical entity. I found myself endlessly astonished at how much of the book has effectively come true in real life since it was written.
Apart from the predictions which were so accurate as to almost constitute premonitions, the book is also littered with pithy insights into human behaviour. Take this passage about a business meeting in Kazakhstan: "After another twenty minutes the bottle and glasses came out. Ten-thirty a.m. I’d had worse. And I respected the tradition. The vodka in the drawer was like a confession: Of course, none of this is really bearable. It made you conscious of its absence in Western offices, and wonder what psychopathy replaced it."
The first person narrator is an MI6 spy who operates between the physical world and the online world. It could be claimed that he's a male version of Lisbeth Salander (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), albeit with nothing like as much charisma. As with Salander, I wondered throughout how much of what he writes about the online world is true and how much is fantasy. I would love to know, for example, whether the following two items of kit actually exist or are completely fictitious: "Stefan had a Polar Breeze – a remote data-sucking device for tapping wirelessly into nearby computers – and a Stingray, which was able to mimic a cell tower and force all phones in a 200-metre radius to connect to it. From there, it could extract contact information, dialled numbers, text messages, calendar."
A minor point, but I found his descriptions of Atyrau in winter - not that I've ever been - to be utterly convincing, and I'd be very curious to know whether they were based on him having visited it at that time of year, or were purely products of his imagination. If it's the latter, then it's very impressive.
Unfortunately, where the book fell down for me was that it simply didn't thrill or grip me. The book's main hook is that the woman that Elliot Kane, the narrator, loves has gone missing and that he's trying to find her. At no point did I have any emotional investment in what had happened to her or what might happen to Elliot Kane. The book simply didn't bridge the gap between intellectual curiosity and emotional involvement.
Ultimately, my response to the book was that it was an interesting, entertaining and absorbing foray into the worlds of espionage, cyber-warfare and geopolitics, but that it was at best absorbing rather than gripping. I will put up with an awful lot in a thriller which thrills - implausible plot lines, two dimensional characters, clunky dialogue - but a thriller which doesn't thrill simply doesn't work for me, no matter how well it delivers elsewhere.
Starting with the positive, the book came out in 2019, nearly three years before Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but it predicts with jaw-dropping accuracy many aspects of the invasion, albeit transposed to Kazakhstan. So much of what I've seen unfolding in Ukraine was anticipated by this book: the drive to restore the Soviet Empire; massive online disinformation projects spread by a mixture of bots and real people; fake news to ferment anger within the indigenous Russian population towards their 'host' country and to garner support in Russia for intervention; the suggestion that the target country doesn't even really exist as a concept beyond its establishment as a geopolitical entity. I found myself endlessly astonished at how much of the book has effectively come true in real life since it was written.
Apart from the predictions which were so accurate as to almost constitute premonitions, the book is also littered with pithy insights into human behaviour. Take this passage about a business meeting in Kazakhstan: "After another twenty minutes the bottle and glasses came out. Ten-thirty a.m. I’d had worse. And I respected the tradition. The vodka in the drawer was like a confession: Of course, none of this is really bearable. It made you conscious of its absence in Western offices, and wonder what psychopathy replaced it."
The first person narrator is an MI6 spy who operates between the physical world and the online world. It could be claimed that he's a male version of Lisbeth Salander (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), albeit with nothing like as much charisma. As with Salander, I wondered throughout how much of what he writes about the online world is true and how much is fantasy. I would love to know, for example, whether the following two items of kit actually exist or are completely fictitious: "Stefan had a Polar Breeze – a remote data-sucking device for tapping wirelessly into nearby computers – and a Stingray, which was able to mimic a cell tower and force all phones in a 200-metre radius to connect to it. From there, it could extract contact information, dialled numbers, text messages, calendar."
A minor point, but I found his descriptions of Atyrau in winter - not that I've ever been - to be utterly convincing, and I'd be very curious to know whether they were based on him having visited it at that time of year, or were purely products of his imagination. If it's the latter, then it's very impressive.
Unfortunately, where the book fell down for me was that it simply didn't thrill or grip me. The book's main hook is that the woman that Elliot Kane, the narrator, loves has gone missing and that he's trying to find her. At no point did I have any emotional investment in what had happened to her or what might happen to Elliot Kane. The book simply didn't bridge the gap between intellectual curiosity and emotional involvement.
Ultimately, my response to the book was that it was an interesting, entertaining and absorbing foray into the worlds of espionage, cyber-warfare and geopolitics, but that it was at best absorbing rather than gripping. I will put up with an awful lot in a thriller which thrills - implausible plot lines, two dimensional characters, clunky dialogue - but a thriller which doesn't thrill simply doesn't work for me, no matter how well it delivers elsewhere.
April 1, 2024
Twisty and exciting.
January 10, 2024
Great read to start of 2024. The literature was fast paced, always with momentum, and with a lot of information. Elliot’s search for Joanna and the “catalyst” will keep you on the edge of your seat. The author obviously has extensive knowledge on political history in the region. There are a lot of names and organizations in the plot and my terrible memory did not help with mentally organizing it all. But it was written very well. I really loved when Elliot realized that HE was the catalyst. And finding Joanna’s body in the last few chapters was sad, but I am glad she did not betray him and that Elliot could finish her mission. A lot of the story contains Elliot remarking and remembering prior minute details to hone us in on his decision making, logic, and how he takes his next steps in preventing a probable world war 3. The only reason I am not giving this a 5 star, heartbreakingly, is that I wish the other characters had a more distinct voice. All in all, a great introduction to the genre and I will absolutely be reading the second book in Elliot Kane’s adventures.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 23, 2020
Pleased to have won this from a goodreads giveaway since I had read Harris' Nick Belsey series and enjoyed them all. This book was different with a new protagonist, Elliott Kane, who knows everyone and everything and has been everywhere and done everything. His back stories were abundant and amazing and like many stories of this genre, he conveniently knows just the right people or organizations to contact to get him out of trouble. The locale was terrific - primarily in Astana, capital city Kazakhstan - and the book was enhanced by looking up pictures of the city and notable architectural features. Definitely a learning experience. This was not a book to read piecemeal - so many characters, so many different organizations, political perspectives, and interpersonal relationships - got a little confusing to the casual reader. This will not prevent me from trying another Elliott Kane book in what I presume will be a good series.
April 28, 2021
One of the better recent national security thrillers: an English undercover operative is warned of a forthcoming plot by a colleague/lover who has fallen off the grid. He tries to find her in Astana while Russia is making moves on Kazakhstan. Aside from uncovering the plot, in which both operatives are being framed, there’s a message here about Russian cyber ops to foment disorder and permit a resurgent Russian expansionism. Make Russia Great Again. Sound familiar? What will we learn in future years about the manipulation of Americans by destabilizing deep fakes and dissimulation from both domestic and foreign elements destabilizing democracy? (Just today a NYPost reporter resigned because she was forced to write a story that was completely faked.) My one problem with the book is that the technology always works seamlessly and without error, human and otherwise.
November 28, 2025
Starts and ends a cut above the typical spy potboiler, but the middle loses its enthusiasm for observation and introduces too many indistinguishable mercenary bosses who I was dismayed to find myself expected to keep track of in the race to the climax.
May 1, 2021
Despite a 5* review from a much respected friend, I really didn't get on with this.
I just thought that Elliott was unbelievable. I know that there are people who are incredibly skilled in languages, but could they be that knowledgable at that age ?
And knowledgeable about everything IT related to be very competent hacker although he does need some specialist help occasionally from people who are able to do just about anything.
And who knows everyone or if he doesn't can charm homself into their arms and families with just a brief meeting.
Plus dozens of other spy skills and knowledge of little-known border crossings in remote countries.
The story itself was half decent but the huge number of characters made it very hard to keep track of and so I lost interest.
Sorry, not for me...
I just thought that Elliott was unbelievable. I know that there are people who are incredibly skilled in languages, but could they be that knowledgable at that age ?
And knowledgeable about everything IT related to be very competent hacker although he does need some specialist help occasionally from people who are able to do just about anything.
And who knows everyone or if he doesn't can charm homself into their arms and families with just a brief meeting.
Plus dozens of other spy skills and knowledge of little-known border crossings in remote countries.
The story itself was half decent but the huge number of characters made it very hard to keep track of and so I lost interest.
Sorry, not for me...
August 15, 2021
For years I've been waiting for someone to make modern espionage as fascinating as the Cold War, and finally Oliver Harris has managed it. His Elliot is a kind of roving publicity agent, selling lies about the world while trying to peer through the lies of others. As cliche as the beginning (missing partner) and ending are, Elliot's method of dealing with them are fresh and exciting.
The catch? Harris just doesn't have the language yet. With Le Carre's gifts. the story would have had me plastered to the car radio; as it is it is a bit of a slog. Still, he shows improvement even in this book, and by the end I did not want to stop listening. Will try the next in the series.
The catch? Harris just doesn't have the language yet. With Le Carre's gifts. the story would have had me plastered to the car radio; as it is it is a bit of a slog. Still, he shows improvement even in this book, and by the end I did not want to stop listening. Will try the next in the series.
December 12, 2021
Dense and complex like the best John LeCarre joints, and does very a very good job convincingly talking about the cyber aspect of modern espionage in the 2020s, but I also think it’s a little TOO dense and complex and times (it could definitely use a flowchart with the main characters and who they are working for and when they met, etc). The writing is OK and has a definite literary pretentious (very much my shit when it comes to spy novels) but it falls into the thriller cliches a little too much in the back half for me, which is why it’s only 3 1/3 stars. Still enjoyed the hell out of it and will return.
September 10, 2019
Frustrating read
Firstly, there is not really much of a story in this and what there is gets padded out with a thousand instances of being side tracked. It is one thing to add depth to a story and quite another to have so little discipline that it goes off on so many tangents. I stayed with it for half the book and then skimmed the remainder- I couldn’t endure any more.
I really can not recommend this to anyone. It is a poor man’s Le Carre.
Firstly, there is not really much of a story in this and what there is gets padded out with a thousand instances of being side tracked. It is one thing to add depth to a story and quite another to have so little discipline that it goes off on so many tangents. I stayed with it for half the book and then skimmed the remainder- I couldn’t endure any more.
I really can not recommend this to anyone. It is a poor man’s Le Carre.
December 19, 2020
Wow. Very complicated but enlightening. SPOILER ALERT. A plan, envisioned then scrapped by MI6 but enacted by rich IndustrialIsts....
idea is to fool Russia into invading Kasakistan to take
Over oil fields while creating friction with China.
Not really a spoiler since this plot is so complicated that it wasn’t apparent (at least to me) and until last few pages.
Very close to our world today where NATO has been weakened and Russia, China and Iran are in ascendancy.
.
idea is to fool Russia into invading Kasakistan to take
Over oil fields while creating friction with China.
Not really a spoiler since this plot is so complicated that it wasn’t apparent (at least to me) and until last few pages.
Very close to our world today where NATO has been weakened and Russia, China and Iran are in ascendancy.
.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 10, 2022
Complex and convoluted with a good background of the politics and history of central Asia and specifically Kazakhstan, but, as a result of this complexity, it wasn't always easy to follow and not as enjoyable as it should have been.
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