New Oliver Harris thriller series to Little, Brown

Little, Brown has acquired two books in a new thriller series from Oliver Harris at auction. 

Harris is the author of the Nick Belsey crime series that has attracted praise from Philip Pullman, Ian Rankin and Val McDermid. 

Publishing director Clare Smith acquired UK and Commonwealth rights in A Shadow Intelligence  from Judith Murray at Greene & Heaton. A Shadow Intelligence marks the launch of an international thriller series featuring Elliott Kane, a new kind of spy. Headhunted from MI6 to join a private intelligence agency that works for global business interests, Kane finds himself at the heart of a conspiracy in Kazakhstan when one of his local agents disappears without trace, leaving a murdered woman in his wake.

The closer Kane looks, the odder things become, and the more suspisious he grows of his past and present exployers. Kane needs to establish who exactly he’s been working for – and why they now need him dead.

Smith said: "I’ve long been a huge fan of Oliver Harris’s fantastic Nick Belsey novels, with their fast pacing and brilliant storytelling so I am completely thrilled to be publishing his new series which taps into the rising conversation about a new Cold War, the power of geo-politics – and, of course, involves fantastic, twisty plotting. He’s an absolute star and deserves the widest possible readership."

Oliver Harris said: ‘Politics has never moved so fast, so unpredictably. Part of the thrill of a thriller is trying to assess what's really going on behind the scenes. I hope Elliott Kane, with his combination of stratagems and intellect, might throw some light on a fascinating and murky global landscape. It's incredibly exciting to be launching this new series with Clare Smith and the incredible team at Little, Brown.’

Little, Brown will publish A Shadow Intelligence as a "superlead" title in Spring 2018.