Fearless: A Novel

by M. W. Craven

Overview

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

“Tough, explosive, badass, and brilliant, Fearless is everything you could want in a thriller...If you like Reacher, you’ll LOVE this.” —Chris Whitaker, New York Times bestselling author of We Begin at the End

What is a truly fearless man capable of?

They’re about to find out. . . .

Ben Koenig used to head the US Marshal’s elite Special Operations Group. His team hunted the bad guys—the really bad guys, and he could find anyone. Then one day Koenig himself disappeared.

Koenig has been on the run for six years. Now suddenly his face is on every television screen in the country and his cover is blown. A woman has gone missing, and her father will do anything to find her. He wants Koenig to discover what happened, no matter the cost.

The trail leads Koenig to a small town in the burning heat of the Chihuahuan Desert, where some people have a secret they’ll do anything to protect. But Koenig has a secret of his own: a unique condition that makes him unable to feel fear.

Now Koenig is coming for them. And they should be afraid.

With Fearless, award-winning author M. W. Craven launches a new series, featuring the man who can't feel fear, Ben Koenig.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250864574
Publisher:	Flatiron Books
Publication date:	07/16/2024
Series:	Ben Koenig , #1
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

M. W. Craven is an English crime writer. He is the author of the Washington Poe series and the DI Avison Fluke series. In 2019 his novel The Puppet Show won the Crime Writers Association Gold Dagger award, and in 2022 his novel Dead Ground won the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award.

Editorial Reviews

05/15/2023

CWA Gold Dagger winner Craven (Dead Ground) ventures to the U.S. for the first time in this tense but underwhelming series launch about the search for a kidnapping victim in Texas’s Chihuahuan Desert. Anchoring the action is Ben Koenig, a former U.S. marshal whose professional slipup six years earlier stirred the ire of Russian organized crime and forced him off the grid. He’s lured out of the shadows by his former boss, whose daughter, Martha, has disappeared from the campus of Georgetown University, where she was studying forensic accounting. Though he suspects Martha is already dead, Koenig agrees to investigate. Rumors that Martha was researching a suspicious energy company lead Koenig to Gauntlet, Tex., where a solar farm has sprung up, owned by a former Georgetown student with a questionable past. Once there, Koenig leans on his military training to muscle through a high-octane rescue mission. Craven excels at writing action, and his strong prose has occasional Chandleresque overtones—a worn-out waitress has “a smile like a coffin lid.” The plot, though, suffers from jumpy pacing and distracting contrivances, with certain key coincidences too implausible to believe. Hopefully, Craven works out the kinks next time around. Agent: David H. Headley, DHH Literary. (July)

Publishers Weekly

Sunday Times bestseller

The New York Post’s Best New Books to Read

Times (UK) Thriller of the Month

“The opening scenes in Fearless are classic suspense-building, but also manage to be entirely original. Craven has unleashed Ben Koenig into the thriller world. Long may he raise hell in the pages. A superb thriller that will have everyone talking, and gasping.”

—David Baldacci, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“Tough, explosive, badass and brilliant, Fearless is everything you could want in a thriller. Blistering pace and all-out action, impossible to put down, impossible to forget. If you like Reacher, you’ll LOVE this.”

—Chris Whitaker, New York Times bestselling author of We Begin at the End

“If you haven’t read any M. W. Craven yet, fix that immediately.”

—S. A. Cosby, New York Times bestselling author of Razorblade Tears

“Fans of Jack Reacher, get excited. . . Imagine if Reacher and John Wick had brought up a child together, and you’d get Ben Koenig. . . A blistering barnstormer of an action thriller, this demands to be read.”

—Heat Magazine, Heat’s Book of the Week (UK)

“Perhaps for the first time, Jack Reacher has a convincing rival in the form of MW Craven's Ben Koenig. . . Highly promising.”

—Times UK

“Koenig’s insouciant style and sharp thinking pack a very hefty punch. Paging Lee and Andrew Child: you’ve got company.”

—Daily Express (UK)

“Fearless is a reading experience that should require safety belts and mouth guards.”

—New York Journal Review of Books

“'Thrill-ride' gets tossed around a little too generously these days, but Craven has written one. A highly entertaining, brilliantly violent tale, full of unforgettable set-pieces.”

—Peter Swanson, New York Times bestselling author of The Kind Worth Killing

“Fearless is a terrific thriller, full of action, twists and turns and a very unusual hero.”

—Peter Robinson, bestselling author of the Inspector Banks novels

“A knockout thriller! Fans of Reacher will love this.”

—Steve Cavanagh, bestselling author of Thirteen

“Great fun...Craven is on top form in Fearless, with his wry, humane take on life woven into fast, gritty action, intriguing characters and entertaining plot. It is easy to see why 25 Hollywood executives made offers to adapt it.”

—The Bookseller, Book of the Month

“The comparisons to Reacher will be inevitable. But what Craven has done is to fashion a character with an identity all his own. In this all-action series debut, we meet Ben Koenig, former-lawman-turned-fugitive; a badass with a backstory; and a man, literally, without fear. Adrenaline-fuelled plotting, hard-charging characters, and small town evil...this is a thriller with all the right ingredients. And yeah, Reacher fans, you’re gonna love this too.”

—Vaseem Khan, award-winning author of the Malabar House series

“Fearless hits the ground running then only gets faster. An absolutely stunning thriller, a total blast, and the most fun I've had speed-turning pages in ages.”

—Simon Toyne, bestselling author of the Sanctus Trilogy and Solomon Creed series

“Effortless. Thrilling. Explosive…this series looks to take the world by storm.”

—Imran Mahmood, author of You Don’t Know Me and All I Said Was True

“Gets off to a strong start…Fast-moving.”

—Kirkus

“Tense…Craven excels at writing action, and his strong prose has occasional Chandleresque overtones.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Full of vividly described violence, clever plotting and an agreeable main character, Fearless is a terrific piece of gutsy entertainment.”

—LiteraryReview.co.uk

“Comparisons to Lee Child’s Jack Reacher character will be inevitable, but MW Craven comfortably manages to outreach Reacher in this viscerally exciting and extremely violent thriller.”

—Sunday Independent (Ireland)

“An elegant ballet of non-stop high octane action and bad ass dialogue. . . The read is breathless and enjoyable.”

—CrimeTime.co.uk

“M.W. Craven masterfully spins a high-octane action thriller that grabs the reader by the throat. The action and suspense are relentlessly ratcheted up in this page-turner, escalating into an amazing denouement.”

—Mystery & Suspense Magazine

“The explosive action thriller of the year. Hurtles to a Bond-like climax.”

—Peterborough Telegraph

“Fearless is crammed with shooting, chasing, hand-to-hand combat, scene-chewing villains, tough guys and tough ladies, plot twists and surprising revelations. If that’s your idea of the perfect summer thriller, you won’t be disappointed.”

—CemeteryDance.com

“A high-octane escapade. Heart-pounding, brutal action scenes – Ben Koenig is the new Jack Reacher on steroids.”

—Woman & Home

From the Publisher

William Hope narrates this first novel in a series featuring the fascinating Ben Koenig, a former U.S. Marshall who once specialized in finding anybody--but who himself found it necessary to disappear six years ago. Now Koenig finds himself the focus of a manhunt initiated by a frantic father who wants him to find his missing daughter. Koenig has myriad special skills; chief among them is a biological inability to feel fear. Hope's portrayal is pure perfection. Nothing fazes Koenig, so each discovery and dangerous moment is narrated by Hope with the perfect blend of sarcasm and ennui. Hope manages to convey Koenig as unemotional and practical while taking listeners on a wild, terrifying ride. Listeners will feel all the fear and danger that Koenig is unable to. L.M.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

AUGUST 2023 - AudioFile

William Hope narrates this first novel in a series featuring the fascinating Ben Koenig, a former U.S. Marshall who once specialized in finding anybody--but who himself found it necessary to disappear six years ago. Now Koenig finds himself the focus of a manhunt initiated by a frantic father who wants him to find his missing daughter. Koenig has myriad special skills; chief among them is a biological inability to feel fear. Hope's portrayal is pure perfection. Nothing fazes Koenig, so each discovery and dangerous moment is narrated by Hope with the perfect blend of sarcasm and ennui. Hope manages to convey Koenig as unemotional and practical while taking listeners on a wild, terrifying ride. Listeners will feel all the fear and danger that Koenig is unable to. L.M.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

AUGUST 2023 - AudioFile

2023-05-24
Off the grid for six years, former U.S. Marshal Ben Koenig is asked to find his former boss' missing daughter.

Koenig was forced to leave the elite Special Operations Group when he was found to have a rare genetic disorder that makes him impervious to fear. Tagged with a $5 million bounty for killing the son of a Russian crime boss, he faked his own death and went underground. He resurfaces when the head of SOG, to whom he is devoted, summons him to find his daughter, Martha—and, in the likely event that she's dead, punish her abductors. Martha’s disappearance and the death of a Georgetown professor of hers have something to do with the research she was doing into a mysterious solar energy company in Texas’ Chihuahuan Desert, where the company founder's best friend died in a rock climbing accident. The business proves to be cover for a criminal operation. Working mostly alone, Koenig schools the reader on such line-of-work skills as the “two ways to kill someone quietly with a knife” and shopping for supplies (“You need more than just a fold-up toothbrush,” he says, scoffing at the solo heroics of Jack Reacher even as he emulates the fictional hero). When his life is threatened, he unnerves his captors by making wisecracks. English author Craven’s first series novel set in the U.S. following his British Washington Poe mysteries gets off to a strong start. But the unwinding of the plot doesn’t always make sense. As one character says, “It all got a bit...metaphysical.” And a little of Koenig’s smugness and cold proclivity for violence go a long way.

A fast-moving but slow-to-convince series debut.

Kirkus Reviews