05/08/2017
At a New Year’s Eve party held at the British embassy in Moscow in December 1985, British Army intelligence officer Tom Fox, the hero of Grimwood’s entertaining thriller debut, meets the ambassador’s unhappy 15-year-old stepdaughter, Alex Masterson. After Tom notices suspicious scarring on the girl’s wrists, he jokingly gives her advice on how to properly commit suicide. His words come back to haunt him a week later when Alex disappears. Her stepfather, Sir Edward, is reluctant to tell the Soviet authorities she’s gone missing, hoping she’ll return on her own. Tom’s feelings of guilt about his possible part in the family’s trauma, as well as his guilt over his daughter Becca’s recent death in a car crash (which may not have been an accident), lead him to search for Alex on his own. Grimwood (The Last Banquet) eventually ties that plot into the gripping opening teaser—the discovery of the corpse of a preteen boy with a severed finger near Red Square. Despite many improbable narrow escapes and an underdeveloped lead, Martin Cruz Smith fans will be pleased. Agent: Jonny Geller, Curtis Brown. (July)
"This is the first thriller written by the speculative-fiction writer also known as Jon Courtenay Grimwood, and it demonstrates that great storytelling is not bound by genre." Booklist (starred review)
"Martin Cruz Smith fans will be pleased." Publishers Weekly
“Given that the definitive thriller in 1980’s Moscow already exists (Martin Cruz Smith’s Gorky Park), Jack Grimwood’s Moskva looks like a crazy gamble. But it’s one that comes off...” Sunday Times (UK)
“Even better than Child 44.” Telegraph (UK)
“A compulsive and supremely intelligent thriller from a master stylist.” Michael Marshall, author of The Straw Men
“A first-rate thriller -Moskva grips from the very first page. Heartily recommended.” William Ryan, author of The Twelfth Department
"Hard to know what to praise first: the operatic sweep of this mesmerising novel; the surefooted orchestration of tension; or the vividly realised sense of time and place..." Financial Times (UK)
'Jack Grimwood is a respected science-fiction writer making his debut in thriller-land, and how splendidly he’s mastered the switch… Excellent.' The Times (UK)
This dark political thriller is a remarkable feat. Highly Recommended.’ Ali Karim, Shots Mag
'With impeccable plotting, research and narrative tension, Grimwood has produced one of the best Soviet set thrillers I have read… Add to your wish list now.’ Raven Crime Reads
'Tom Fox is well drawn, the action scenes filled with energy and tension, but the real hero of Moskva is Russia itself, bleak, corrupt, falling apart, but with an incurable humanity.’ Tom Callaghan
'Moskva has quite enough going for it to make comparisons futile. It is a bleak and bloody thriller with a serpentine plot which I think I almost followed…’ Getting Away With Murder
'Something special in the arena of international thrillers.’ Crime Time
'Memorable characters, powerful recreations of history and an unrelenting pace that will keep you breathless. A striking debut in the genre.’ Maxim Jakubowski
‘Richly layered, stylish, beautifully constructed, and full of passion beneath the chills… Not to be missed.’ Sarah Pinborough
‘A sublime writer… I felt glimmers of Le Carré shining through the prose.’ CrimeSquad
'A first-rate thriller. Moskva grips from the very first page.’ William Ryan
‘Cool, cruel and elegant.’ Tom Pollock