The Defector

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What to expect

From the author of the international bestselling thriller The Apollo Murders: a supersonic hunt for a shadowy Soviet defector known only as 'Grief'.

Israel, late 1973. As the Yom Kippur War flares into life, a state-of-the-art Soviet MIG fighter is racing at breakneck speed over the arid scrublands below . . . and promptly disappears.

It soon becomes clear to Israeli intelligence that the pilot is a defector, desperate to come over to the US side. Houston Flight Controller and former test pilot Kaz Zemeckis is charged with bringing the pilot and his plane to the highly secret Area 51, in the Nevada desert. But every defection carries with it a risk. It soon becomes clear that 'Grief' has the technical ability, and now the opportunity, to gain access to the treasures of the Nevada Test Range - either a prototype stealth fighter or the NERVA nuclear rocket engine. Or both.

For Chris Hadfield's second heart-stopping thriller, we move from Space to another rich and exciting part of Chris's professional CV: his time as the top test pilot in both the US Air Force and the US Navy, and as a Cold War pilot intercepting armed Soviet bombers in North American airspace. Just as Gregg Hurwitz called The Apollo Murders 'an explosive thriller by a writer who has actually been to space and back', here we have a matchless thriller and the nerve-shredding rush of aerial combat, as told by one of the world's top fighter pilots.

(P) 2023 Hachette Audio

Critics Review

Tom Clancy-style fighter jets and a sprinkling of reality from Hadfield's time as a test pilot . . . It is a thriller in every sense
New Scientist
He controls the story with a fighter pilot's verve and confidence, bringing real insider expertise to a fast-paced cold war tale
Financial Times
As a writer, his strength is his ability to draw on his specialist knowledge to add verisimilitude . . . while his high-octane depiction of aerial dogfights stirs memories of Top Gun and Craig Thomas's Firefox. Afterburners on!
The Times
Chris Hadfield uses his experiences to great effect in this thrilling story about a defecting Russian pilot . . . [The Defector] moves at great speed and contains mesmerising descriptions of flying under supreme pressure
Literary Review
Nail-bitingly exciting . . . Hadfield is clearly destined to inherit the late Tom Clancy's mantle as master of the techno-thriller genre
Irish Independent
Action-packed, cleverly plotted and rich with the kind of satisfyingly authentic detail and keen insights that only a writer with Hadfield's extraordinary resume can provide, The Defector delivers on every level. Wondering what to do until Top Gun 3 arrives? Don't worry, Chris Hadfield's got it covered
Rowland White
Packed with the kind of insider knowledge you simply don't get in thrillers these days, The Defector is not just an intelligent book, it's an exciting book. Expertly paced with breathtaking set pieces, I raced through it in a couple of sittings. It reminded me of Frederick Forsyth in his pomp - highly recommended
M.W. Craven, Sunday Times bestselling author of Dead Ground and The Botanist
An extraordinary novel, brimming with detail and realism and full of pulse-pounding action
Mark Greaney, bestselling author of Burner, a Gray Man novel
Real-life figures collide with fictional espionage in former astronaut Hadfield's gripping sequel to The Apollo Murders . . . Hadfield keeps the suspense steady before delivering a knockout air battle that brings everything to a white-knuckle close. Kaz's adventures continue to electrify
Publishers Weekly
Ideal exciting escapist reading
Aerospace

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