A Loyal Spy
On sale
2nd September 2010
Price: £9.99
CWA Daggers: Steel, 2010
WINNER OF THE IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER AWARD 2010 FOR BEST THRILLER OF THE YEAR! The last time Jonah saw Nor ed-Din, he was lying face down in a pool of black water in the Khyber Pass. For many years, Jonah had been under the impression that he’d killed him there. How far can loyalty be stretched before it reaches a limit? Millions of lives depend on the answer, as a twisting road of betrayal and revenge leads from the mountains of Afghanistan to the heart of London …and a ticking bomb.
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Reviews
A LOYAL SPY has incredibly well drawn characters, evocative descriptive passages, and a superbly balanced narrative structure - the twists are unexpected but convincing and the final extended sequence is truly nail-biting. Terrific!
Complex and detailed . . . Conway has concocted a credible, and wholly cynical, tale of dirt, death and double-dealing, of déraciné anti-heroes for whom perpetual conflict has become both lifeblood and poison.
Alarmingly current, alarmingly possible. This is a book that captures the new world of asymmetric warfare and yet sustains the narrative and tension of the very best of the thriller genre. A LOYAL SPY is so vivid, so real, that reading it you sense Simon Conway must almost have lived it himself.
Simon Conway takes you to the world's most chaotic and dangerous places - and does it with the raw descriptive power of someone who's been there and done that
[a] gripping thriller
In a word: Great
Conway writes with brutal immediacy, his mordant irony resonating uncomfortably even as it entertains...Grim, kinetic thriller set against an unconventional and inspired backdrop
'A dizzying journey starring international terrorists, Uday Hussein, freelance salvage merchants and a container full of suffocated Kuwaiti businessmen. Authoritative and authentic . . . a thriller that manages to balance adrenaline with intelligence.'
A Loyal Spy is full of the elements that make a thriller such a joy. Simon has a huge amount of knowledge of that part of the world, he has a facility for believable scenes, for convoluted plotting that would confuse le Carré, and a marvellous range of characters.
A thumping read that joins the dots in the War on Terror. Conway writes with passion and authority on the murky forces unleashed after 9/11.
Simon Conway boldly illustrates the anarchy of "asymmetric warfare" by adopting a shapeless plotline . . . our reward for grasping the complexities is an enhanced sense of the authenticity of Conway's personal experience and a conventionally stonking action climax.
accuracy seeps out of every page
Tautly written and cleverly plotted, with well-drawn characters, vivid scenes and nail-biting passages, this is thrilling fiction that is unnervingly believable.
Debut of a roaring and prodigal talent ... Not so much a novel as a life experience. Don't miss it.
Imagine John le Carre on bad acid - edgy, twisted and very, very dark.
Good background, with an on-the-nail summary of Northern Ireland wheeling and dealing . . . and a wild Celtic streak that marks Conway as one to watch.
A debut novel to rival The Beach.
Cruel, violent and lyrical, it's Iain Banks meeting Alan Warner in Tom Clancy's missile silo. Excellent.