Awards

• Long-listed for CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2011 (UK)
• Long-listed for CWA Specsavers Bestseller Dagger 2011 (UK)

Overview

Full Product Details

9780230753303

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Reviews

Derek writes: This is the first book by Chris Morgan Jones and one that I thoroughly enjoyed. It's been compared to John LeCarre, and although that's a fair comparison, it's clear that Jones is writing about a business he knows very well. He is in fact the inspiration for his lead character as before he penned this book he worked for a New York company called Kroll for eleven years. Kroll is the world's largest investigations company: it checks out people before deals, advises clients on disputes, investigates and helps recover money from frauds. It does this all over the world, and gets involved in some very interesting situations. Jones worked in the London office and specialised in Eastern European work, particularly for Russians and in Russia. So Ben Webster is based on Jones himself and the company he works for, Ikertu Consulting is a stripped down version of Kroll. Ikertu is hired by a client to expose the shadowy dealings of a Russian oligarch Konstantin Malin, and although it's just another job for Webster, there are issues in his past life which make Malin a particularly juicy target for him. There are two main characters in the book, Webster and his quarry, Malin's front man, Richard lock. Lock is an English lawyer who lives in Russia and is the richest foreign investor in that country. He is, on the surface, the owner of a huge private energy conglomerate, but Webster can find no possible way that Lock can have acquired his wealth. He believes that if he can turn lock, he can discredit Malin. So begins a global game of cat and mouse, with Ben Webster's tenacity matched against the unlimited resources and muscle of the oligarch. As Webster puts the pressure on Lock, his predecessor is murdered – obviously Malin is housekeeping to ensure no-one speaks, and Webster realises that he and his family might well be at risk. This is an absolutely first-class geo-political thriller from this new writer, and I for one hope that Jones has a few more war stories in his kit bag.

Author Information

For eleven years Chris Morgan Jones worked at the world's largest business intelligence agency. He has advised Middle Eastern governments, Russian oligarchs, New York banks, London hedge funds and African mining companies. An Agent of Deceit is his first novel

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