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How to Betray Your Country
(2021)(The second book in the Discipline Files series)
A novel by James Wolff
PW STARRED REVIEW: “Brilliant sequel to 2018’s Beside the Syrian Sea. James Wolff skillfully portrays an espionage agent on the verge of losing himself to his demons. This is spy fiction like no other.” Publishers Weekly ------
April Thriller of the Month: "Wolff’s examination of the crises of conscience caused by spying, however, make this a distinctly more thought-provoking novel than is customary in the genre. Turkish delight.” The Times-------
Things are looking bad for disgraced spy August Drummond. In emotional free fall after the death of his wife, fired for a series of unprecedented security breaches… and now his neighbor on the flight to Istanbul won’t stop talking. The only thing keeping him sane is the hunch that there’s something not quite right about the nervous young man several rows ahead – a hunch that is confirmed when August watches him throw away directions to an old European cemetery seconds before being detained by Turkish police. A reckless August decides to go to the cemetery, where he meets a mysterious figure from the dark heart of the Islamic State and quickly finds himself drawn into a shadowy plot to murder an Iranian scientist in Istanbul.
But nothing is what it seems, and before long August realises he has gone too far to turn back. As he struggles to break free from the clutches of Islamic State and play off British intelligence against their Turkish counterparts, he will find his resourcefulness, ingenuity and courage tested to the very limit of what he can endure.
The second novel in a trilogy about loyalty and betrayal in the modern world, How to Betray Your Country is an authentic thriller about the thin line between following your conscience and following orders.
Genre: Thriller
April Thriller of the Month: "Wolff’s examination of the crises of conscience caused by spying, however, make this a distinctly more thought-provoking novel than is customary in the genre. Turkish delight.” The Times-------
Things are looking bad for disgraced spy August Drummond. In emotional free fall after the death of his wife, fired for a series of unprecedented security breaches… and now his neighbor on the flight to Istanbul won’t stop talking. The only thing keeping him sane is the hunch that there’s something not quite right about the nervous young man several rows ahead – a hunch that is confirmed when August watches him throw away directions to an old European cemetery seconds before being detained by Turkish police. A reckless August decides to go to the cemetery, where he meets a mysterious figure from the dark heart of the Islamic State and quickly finds himself drawn into a shadowy plot to murder an Iranian scientist in Istanbul.
But nothing is what it seems, and before long August realises he has gone too far to turn back. As he struggles to break free from the clutches of Islamic State and play off British intelligence against their Turkish counterparts, he will find his resourcefulness, ingenuity and courage tested to the very limit of what he can endure.
The second novel in a trilogy about loyalty and betrayal in the modern world, How to Betray Your Country is an authentic thriller about the thin line between following your conscience and following orders.
Genre: Thriller
Praise for this book
"This important book...brought home the complex and shifting situation in the Middle East and the danger of looking for simple explanations. I loved Jonas - the quiet man pushed by his own guilt into becoming a hero." - Ann Cleeves
"Great characters, convincing detail and a compelling story. All too human MI6 desk jockey, Jonas, is no James Bond but he manages to stay one step ahead of his ex-employers, the CIA, Hezbollah, Isis and the reader right up until the final showdown in the desert." - Charlie Higson
"Great espionage novels are not genre pieces but studies of betrayal, dishonour, expediency, loyalty -- the darkness of human nature, the subjects of all literature. Unsurprisingly, it's hard to find good ones but I just finished Beside the Syrian Sea by James Wolff, a debut by an ex-spy, is superb: an adventure from London to Lebanon and Syria and the desperate struggle for survival in the face of war and betrayal. Wolff is a new maestro." - Simon Sebag Montefiore
"Having confessed my addiction to crime, I should also admit that a good spy story will always have me hooked. Beside the Syrian Sea, by James Wolff. His name is a pseudonym, for reasons that most readers will guess is connected to his job, because this is an account of a hostage-taking in the Middle East and the efforts of a renegade MI5 officer to rescue his father, and it trembles with realistic detail. I know we'll hear more of him." - James Naughtie
"James Wolff clearly knows in detail the complex and murky world of Middle Eastern intrigue. An intelligent, exciting and wholly convincing novel." - Piers Paul Read
"Great characters, convincing detail and a compelling story. All too human MI6 desk jockey, Jonas, is no James Bond but he manages to stay one step ahead of his ex-employers, the CIA, Hezbollah, Isis and the reader right up until the final showdown in the desert." - Charlie Higson
"Great espionage novels are not genre pieces but studies of betrayal, dishonour, expediency, loyalty -- the darkness of human nature, the subjects of all literature. Unsurprisingly, it's hard to find good ones but I just finished Beside the Syrian Sea by James Wolff, a debut by an ex-spy, is superb: an adventure from London to Lebanon and Syria and the desperate struggle for survival in the face of war and betrayal. Wolff is a new maestro." - Simon Sebag Montefiore
"Having confessed my addiction to crime, I should also admit that a good spy story will always have me hooked. Beside the Syrian Sea, by James Wolff. His name is a pseudonym, for reasons that most readers will guess is connected to his job, because this is an account of a hostage-taking in the Middle East and the efforts of a renegade MI5 officer to rescue his father, and it trembles with realistic detail. I know we'll hear more of him." - James Naughtie
"James Wolff clearly knows in detail the complex and murky world of Middle Eastern intrigue. An intelligent, exciting and wholly convincing novel." - Piers Paul Read
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