04/18/2022
Despite being on paid leave for overzealously pursuing past cases, CIA officer Sam Hudson, the hero of this fast-paced thriller from Quirk (Hour of the Assassin ), refuses to back off his search for a deep cover Russian agent, code-named Konstantin, believed responsible for the assassination of several U.S. operatives overseas. Hudson believes Konstantin has already arrived in Washington, D.C., and is behind a recent bombing, as well as a dramatic explosion on the Mall that killed a U.S. senator. Hudson teams with fellow CIA officer Emily Pierce, and together they endure several bloody encounters with embedded Russian agents who are planning to take Konstantin’s plan a step further by activating an operation set in place 35 years earlier by Soviet spies. A tense, subterranean confrontation between Hudson and Konstantin caps off the action. In the end, neither lead character leaves much of an impression, and the middle of the convoluted plot contains references to events and characters that will be meaningful only to those who have read other books by this author. Fans of Quirk’s rock ’em, sock ’em brand, however, will be satisfied. Agent: Dan Conaway, Writers House. (June)
“Intricately plotted with extraordinary characters and riveting action, Matthew Quirk’s Red Warning needs to be at the top of your list! Once you crack this high-octane thriller, be ready to cancel all plans. You won’t put it down until the final bullet hits its mark.” — Jack Carr, #1 New York Times bestselling author of In the Blood
“Riveting….[with] a heart-pumping final showdown that readers won’t soon forget…Matthew Quirk delivers the kind of well-written adventure his fans have come to expect with Red Warning , an early contender for best spy thriller of the year.” — Real Book Spy
“Red Warning is the latest intense espionage drama offered by author Matthew Quirk…Gripping…The adrenaline rush doesn’t abate with this read until after the last page has been read.” — Seattle Book Review
“Quirk has earned his spot in the front ranks of thriller writers. Opens with a bang and keeps exploding for three hundred pages." — David Baldacci on Hour of the Assassin
“[A] gritty, intense political thriller, filled with nuance and dire exploits. Totally entertaining. A treat from start to finish." — Steve Berry on Hour of the Assassin
“Hour of the Assassin is written in terse, swift prose as it sketches a panorama of 'Washington at its worst,' a place ruled by 'the corruption and blood sport of high politics.'” — Wall Street Journal
“Of all the literary genres, a suspense novel is highly dependent on a good hook. Matthew Quirk knows this better than anyone… His books do not begin with subtle language or mysterious foreshadowing. They begin with a bang, sometimes quite literally.” — San Diego Union-Tribune on Hour of the Assassin
"The action never ceases in Quirk’s story, and you’ll find yourself reading way past your bedtime." — Newark Star Ledger on Hour of the Assassin
“This story is impossible to put out of mind.... Relevant and revealing, this is one of the best thrillers to come along in years.” — Michael Connelly on The Night Agent
“Plenty of breathless one-more-chapter, stay-up-late suspense wrapped around a meaty and timely story ... irresistible.” — Lee Child on The Night Agent
“The Night Agent is a whirlwind of a book, a captivating narrative that takes us inside the White House’s inner sanctum and the shadowy machinations surrounding it. A powerful and taut thriller.” — Mark Greaney
“Strap in for one hell of a ride. The Night Agent is full of twists and surprises you’ll never see coming.” — Ben Coes
Matthew Quirk moves into David Baldacci and John Grisham territory with The Night Agent , a paranoid, pulse-pounding thriller that could not be more prescient. If you’re wondering where the best of the next generation of suspense talent is headed, look no further.” — Joseph Finder
Quirk has earned his spot in the front ranks of thriller writers. Opens with a bang and keeps exploding for three hundred pages."
David Baldacci on Hour of the Assassin
Plenty of breathless one-more-chapter, stay-up-late suspense wrapped around a meaty and timely story ... irresistible.
Lee Child on The Night Agent
Hour of the Assassin is written in terse, swift prose as it sketches a panorama of 'Washington at its worst,' a place ruled by 'the corruption and blood sport of high politics.'
This story is impossible to put out of mind.... Relevant and revealing, this is one of the best thrillers to come along in years.
Michael Connelly on The Night Agent
Strap in for one hell of a ride. The Night Agent is full of twists and surprises you’ll never see coming.
Of all the literary genres, a suspense novel is highly dependent on a good hook. Matthew Quirk knows this better than anyone… His books do not begin with subtle language or mysterious foreshadowing. They begin with a bang, sometimes quite literally.”
San Diego Union-Tribune on Hour of the Assassin
Intricately plotted with extraordinary characters and riveting action, Matthew Quirk’s Red Warning needs to be at the top of your list! Once you crack this high-octane thriller, be ready to cancel all plans. You won’t put it down until the final bullet hits its mark.”
[A] gritty, intense political thriller, filled with nuance and dire exploits. Totally entertaining. A treat from start to finish."
Steve Berry on Hour of the Assassin
The Night Agent is a whirlwind of a book, a captivating narrative that takes us inside the White House’s inner sanctum and the shadowy machinations surrounding it. A powerful and taut thriller.
"The action never ceases in Quirk’s story, and you’ll find yourself reading way past your bedtime."
Newark Star Ledger on Hour of the Assassin
Hour of the Assassin is written in terse, swift prose as it sketches a panorama of 'Washington at its worst,' a place ruled by 'the corruption and blood sport of high politics.'
Matthew Quirk moves into David Baldacci and John Grisham territory with The Night Agent , a paranoid, pulse-pounding thriller that could not be more prescient. If you’re wondering where the best of the next generation of suspense talent is headed, look no further.
09/01/2022
CIA officer Sam Hudson has been trying to track down and capture a Russian sleeper agent code-named Konstantin. Hudson's meeting with an informant in Geneva is ambushed, leaving the informant and Hudson's partner dead and Hudson badly injured. While recovering, Hudson is on hand for a string of explosions in Washington, DC, so the CIA begins to suspect that he had a part in these operations. Hudson goes rogue to prove his innocence. While investigating, he finds evidence that a decades-old Cold War plan is about to be put into play. If successful, the plan could destroy the U.S. government and the monuments of DC. He gets unexpected help from a fellow CIA officer and a Russian informant, while uncovering traitors, assassins, and previously unknown double agents. Quirk (Night Agent) leads listeners on a fast-moving chase ending in the underground tunnels and sewers of the U.S. capitol. Narrator Will Damron ably delivers the ups and downs, the desperation and triumph of the race to save the country. VERDICT Quirk's fans and readers of spy stories will enjoy this audio.—Joanna M. Burkhardt
01/01/2022
In Bentley's Tom Clancy Zero Hour , Jack Ryan Jr. is interviewing a Campus prospect in Seoul when North Korea's leader is devastatingly injured, prompting a power struggle among sleeper agents in South Korea. In Berry's The Omega Factor , UNESCO investigator Nicholas Lee is following a lead to the long-missing 12th panel of the relentlessly plundered Ghent Altarpiece when he stumbles upon a centuries-old conflict between some no-nonsense nuns called the Maidens of Saint-Michael and the Vatican, desperate to grab a secret the maidens guard (200,000-copy first printing). Having appeared in six best-selling DeMille novels, retired NYPD Homicide Detective John Corey is hanging out at his uncle's waterfront estate on Long Island when he heeds a call to help find a serial killer who is dispatching prostitutes and burying them along the beach in The Maze (originally scheduled for June 2021; 500,000-copy first printing). Pulled from the icy Pacific and presumed dead, a revived Elle can remember little except her name in Dodd's stand-alone, Point Last Seen , but it surely looks to rescuer Adam like someone tried to kill her (75,000-copy paperback and 10,000-copy hardcover first printing). What could be Red on the River in the next exemplar of Romantic suspense from Feehan, which is set in the Sierra Nevada mountains? When tomb raiders kill archaeologist Riley Smith's father after he discovers the burial site of Helen of Troy, Riley seeks revenge while asking forensic sculptor Eve Duncan to reconstruct A Face To Die For (100,000-copy first printing). Marshals Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch have their hands full in Knott's Robert B. Parker's Opium Rose when the daughter of Virgil's half-brother arrives in Appaloosa, having fled San Francisco following the death of her lawyer husband; apparently, he was involved in a big opium operation. In Escape , a follow-up to Patterson's Black Book , a rich-as-Croesus crime lord breaks out of jail and leaves a taunting note for crack Chicago detective Billy Harney, who he knew would be called to the scene (300,000-copy first printing). In Quirk's Red Warning , CIA officer Sam Hudson is nearly blown up in Geneva as he obsessively tracks Russian mole Konstanin, then dodges bombs back in Washington, DC, when Konstanin follows him home (125,000-copy first printing).