Hellyer's Coup: Second in the Nick Hellyer Espionage Series

by Philip Prowse

A series with promise. The storyline is thoroughly researched and the scene setting vibrant. Hellyer is an engaging protagonist, courageous and conflicted, but also a libertine and bon viveur.Financial TimesA series that provokes both laughter and reflection. The assignment leads Hellyer into a moral conundrum for which he has no answer - is facilitating one war crime to prevent others morally justified? And, as he collides with sincerely committed people on all sides, he is forced to wonder what his own motives are.Morning Star

Nick Hellyer faces the spy's ultimate dilemma. He is tasked to infiltrate a chemical weapons programme and destroy it. But in the process, lives will be lost.

His struggles with issues of complicity and guilt are set against a background of the guerrilla insurgency in Mozambique and the army plan to overthrow the Portuguese dictatorship in 1974. He succeeds in aligning himself with the coup plotters and participates in the virtually bloodless overthrow of the government. However, the tally of other deaths associated with him continues to pile up.

'People have died because of my actions, but not through my intentions.'

An assassination target, fallout from a previous mission, he struggles to separate his lover's professional and personal motivations. Just as his participation in nerve gas trials in Mozambique forces him to query his moral compass.

If you enjoy tension and drama, being immersed in a new culture, feeling and experiencing action through a spy's eyes in a tumultuous revolutionary period, read Hellyer's Coup now.

For fans of John le Carré, Charles Cumming, Mick Herron, Philip Kerr and Adam LeBor. Hellyer's Coup is the second Nick Hellyer espionage novel by Philip Prowse. The first in the series, Hellyer's Trip, was reviewed in the Morning

"This author knows and conveys his chosen period and place well, aided by a central character who displays exactly the right balance between naivety and foxiness."

237 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 1, 2021

About the author

Philip Prowse, author of the Nick Hellyer espionage series, lived and worked overseas for over a decade including periods in Egypt where Hellyer’s Trip takes place against the background of the 1967 Six Day War, Portugal whose 1974 Carnation Revolution and guerrilla war in Mozambique feature in Hellyer’s Coup, and Greece where the fall of the military junta and the 1974 invasion of Cyprus provide the setting for Hellyer’s Line.

Moving into an unknown country with an alien language and culture, ways of thinking and perspectives on life parallels that of the secret agent’s struggle to swim unobserved in perilous waters. Through the series we follow Nick Hellyer’s development from reluctant accidental academic spy to trained hardened professional. But his depth of experience has been gained at the cost of traumatic incidents which have increased his vulnerability and undermined his self-confidence.

We experience events from Nick’s point of view, knowing and seeing only what he does as he hurtles towards his destiny. We are privy to his thoughts and self-doubt, exhilaration and despair, delirium and delight. We interpret this evidence in our own way and reach our own conclusions because like him we want to know how it will all end.

Reading a fast-moving Hellyer novel will immerse you in a story where accurate historical fact and plausible fiction meld, where with Nick as guide you may uncover fresh truths about the world and even yourself.

Listening to the masterly narration on the top quality audiobooks will bring the characters and action to vivid life.