The Exphoria Code: A Novel

by Antony Johnston

Overview

Award-winning and bestselling author Antony Johnston introduces a major new techno-thriller series featuring an MI6 cyber-espionage specialist.

Brigitte Sharp is a brilliant but haunted young MI6 hacker who has been deskbound and in therapy for three years after her first field mission in Syria went disastrously wrong. Despite her boss's encouragement, Bridge isn’t ready to go back in the field.

But now one of her best friends has been murdered, and Bridge believes his death is connected to strange “ASCII art” posts appearing on the internet that carry encrypted hidden messages. On decoding the messages, she discovers evidence of a mole inside a top-secret Anglo-French military drone project—an enemy who may also be her friend’s killer. Her MI6 bosses force her back into the field, sending her undercover in France to find and expose the mole. But the truth behind the Exphoria code is worse than anyone imagined, and soon Bridge is on the run, desperate and alone, as a terrorist plot unfolds and threatens everything she has left to live for.

Drawing on cutting edge technology and modern global threats, Brigitte Sharp is a highly credible female spy in a truly original and contemporary story.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643135274
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	10/06/2020
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Antony Johnston is an award-winning, New York Times bestselling graphic novelist, author, and games writer. He has written more than thirty graphic novels, comic series, and books, and his graphic spy thriller The Coldest City was made into the multi-million-dollar blockbuster Atomic Blonde, starring Charlize Theron and James McAvoy. He lives in England.

Editorial Reviews

07/06/2020

MI6 cyber-analyst Brigitte Sharp, the heroine of this intriguing if flawed series launch from comics author Johnston (The Coldest City), was a teenage hacker who avoided prison by going to work for the British government in the Cyber Threat Analytics unit. She has been a field agent, but lost that status in an incident that still haunts her. Sharp’s boss in London wants her back in the field, but she balks, until she feels compelled to investigate the suspicious death of Tenebrae_Z, a friend and fellow hacker. She determines that Tenebrae_Z’s death might have security implications. Later, she looks into a suspected breach of a secret project in France, where a mole appears to be stealing secrets. Sharp turns out to be quite resourceful, physically and mentally, and thrilling action scenes keep the pages turning, but readers should be prepared for too much exposition and paint-by-numbers characterizations. Johnston’s obvious talent suggests he can do better in the sequel. Agent: Sarah Such, Sarah Such Literary (U.K.). (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Antony Johnston is a talent to look out for and this, his latest entry into the world of espionage, is a treat.

Anthony Horowitz

"A fast-paced and cleverly constructed story that uses many of the familiar spy-novel tropes but does so in exciting new ways. Johnston makes good use of jargon and technical terminology to give the story an air of realism, although the story pushes itself right to the edge of plausibility, cleverly adding to the suspense. A rousing success."

Booklist

Johnston does for hackers what le Carré did for short, fat office managers—turn them into spies you can root for.

Spywrite

A really great, page-turning read.

BBC Radio Ulster

"Readers will thrill to the chase in this kickoff to a techno-thriller series that has at its center a hacker with a heart of gold—and nerves of steel."

BookPage

In The Exphoria Code, Antony Johnston delivers a crackling fuse-wire of a book with a plot torn from next year’s headlines and an understanding of contemporary spy-craft that will make your head spin. This is very possibly the definitive espionage thriller of the early 21st century.

Alan Moore