Overview

"""Pass the popcorn!"" AMAZON EDITORS' PICK! Vanessa Cronin, Sr. Editor ""Brilliantly executed...these are first-class spy novels with a smart, gritty atmosphere."" - CHARLES CUMMING, New York Times & Sunday Times Best-selling Author of KENNEDY 35 and BOX 88 ""A chilling, inspired espionage thriller."" EDITOR'S PICK Publisher's Weekly Tom Bishop: ""You don't just trade these people like they're baseball cards! It's not a game!"" Nathan Muir: ""That's exactly what it is and it's no kid's game either. This is a whole other game. And it's serious. And it's dangerous. And it's not one you want to lose."" It's 48 hours before the events of the movie classic Spy Game and Nathan Muir is about to see his world implode... Who'd want to assassinate Charlie March? The original Cold War hero. Mentor, brother, confessor-in-chief to Nathan Muir, he's the spy who waltzed in from the cold and wrote a bestseller in the Florida sunshine. But when a bomb on his yacht puts Charlie March on ice, and his dying words implicate Muir, the CIA dispatch hard-luck Agency lawyer Russell Aiken to force Muir's confession and bury forty years of dirty secrets. By legal means...or otherwise. ""A thinking man's thriller... A real adrenaline blast... I loved it!"" ROBERT REDFORD, Spy Game 2023 GOLD MEDAL WINNER - BEST FIRST BOOK - Independent Publishers IPPY Awards 2022 WINNER - SPY THRILLER OF THE YEAR - Best Thrillers Book Awards 2022 BOOK OF THE YEAR, FINALIST - Foreword Reviews INDIES Awards ""Relentlessly tense... This smashing espionage tale kicks off what promises to be a smart, indelible series."" Kirkus Reviews The prot�g� Muir cast aside in favor of Tom Bishop, Aiken thirsts for payback unaware that Muir launched a different kind of game for him and Bishop long ago, and Aiken has 24 hours to learn its rules, plays, and lethal stakes. Epic in scope, Muir's Gambit sweeps from the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir to Cyprus terror bombings, Congo coup d'�tats, Angolan proxy wars, and into the final hours of the Berlin Wall. And for two men untethered from morality, all those lies leave one final night for redemption. ""It's policy versus heart... Will challenge you in ways you haven't been challenged before."" TONY SCOTT Spy Game"

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Reviews

"""Pass the popcorn!"" AMAZON EDITORS' PICK! Vanessa Cronin, Sr. Editor ""This superior end-of-the-Cold-War cat-and-mouse espionage thriller kicks off a book trilogy that's actually a cross-media (and cross-decades) quartet... Charged, vivid prose, electric dialogue, and an encyclopedic command of 20th century espionage and culture keep the pages turning until a pained, satisfying ending... A chilling, inspired espionage thriller."" EDITOR'S PICK! Publisher Weekly Booklife ""Relentlessly tense... This smashing espionage tale kicks off what promises to be a smart, indelible series."" Kirkus Reviews ""Michael Frost Beckner's taut spy thriller Muir's Gambit follows a CIA attorney and a legendary spy as they engage in a battle of wits...spanning decades, piles of secrets, the men's sordid pasts, and the race toward the truth... Multilayered, gritty and tense."" 5 STARS - BOOK OF THE YEAR FINALIST - Foreword Reviews ""Muir's Gambit is a politically astute, morally ambiguous, impeccably researched espionage thriller brimming with deception. However, unlike spy-thrillers that glamorize espionage with big action scenes and wildly illogical gadgetry, this is a scathing condemnation of tradecraft and its moral and psychological cost... Russell, the novel's sardonic, alcoholic narrator, is a bleakly funny, desperate character, worlds away from the James Bond super-spy standard. Muir, meanwhile, is a scenery-munching Machiavelli, whose manipulative philosophizing and affinity for intrigue recall John Le Carr�'s George Smiley. And Tom Bishop is probably the closest thing to a hero, despite eventually becoming disillusioned. Muir's Gambit is a brilliant opening salvo in the author's Aiken trilogy."" BlueInk Review ""Nothing short of two juggernauts dueling in an epic game of high-stakes chess...Beckner establishes a 'no holds barred' tone that...builds toward a fever pitch as what is true and what is a lie is blurred, often beyond recognition... Edge-of-your-seat action! RECOMMENDED The US Review of Books ""It's rare, in the thriller genre, to find such an ongoing and neat juxtaposition of interests and vying forces, [but] Michael Frost Beckner's Muir's Gambit...succeeds on so many levels that its course is not only unpredictable, but thoroughly delightful."" HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! Midwest Book Review ""Tony Mendez and I have been fans of Michael Frost Beckner's work for many years. From Spy Game, through the Aiken Trilogy of Spy Game books: Michael's writing takes you into the intricacies of the cat and mouse aspects of spying, and the choreography of working on the street in other cultures. We have always been two of his most enthusiastic readers!"" Jonna Mendez, former CIA Chief of Disguise ""Michael Frost Beckner is the rarest of spy novelists, a beautiful and compelling writer who also has a mastery of tradecraft and a deep understanding of how espionage really works."" Joe Weisberg, former CIA Officer and Emmy winning creator of The Americans"

"""Pass the popcorn!"" AMAZON EDITORS' PICK! Vanessa Cronin, Sr. Editor ""This superior end-of-the-Cold-War cat-and-mouse espionage thriller kicks off a book trilogy that's actually a cross-media (and cross-decades) quartet... Charged, vivid prose, electric dialogue, and an encyclopedic command of 20th century espionage and culture keep the pages turning until a pained, satisfying ending... A chilling, inspired espionage thriller."" EDITOR'S PICK! Publisher Weekly Booklife ""Relentlessly tense... This smashing espionage tale kicks off what promises to be a smart, indelible series."" Kirkus Reviews ""Michael Frost Beckner's taut spy thriller Muir's Gambit follows a CIA attorney and a legendary spy as they engage in a battle of wits...spanning decades, piles of secrets, the men's sordid pasts, and the race toward the truth... Multilayered, gritty and tense."" 5 STARS - BOOK OF THE YEAR FINALIST - Foreword Reviews ""Muir's Gambit is a politically astute, morally ambiguous, impeccably researched espionage thriller brimming with deception. However, unlike spy-thrillers that glamorize espionage with big action scenes and wildly illogical gadgetry, this is a scathing condemnation of tradecraft and its moral and psychological cost... Russell, the novel's sardonic, alcoholic narrator, is a bleakly funny, desperate character, worlds away from the James Bond super-spy standard. Muir, meanwhile, is a scenery-munching Machiavelli, whose manipulative philosophizing and affinity for intrigue recall John Le Carré's George Smiley. And Tom Bishop is probably the closest thing to a hero, despite eventually becoming disillusioned. Muir's Gambit is a brilliant opening salvo in the author's Aiken trilogy."" BlueInk Review ""Nothing short of two juggernauts dueling in an epic game of high-stakes chess...Beckner establishes a 'no holds barred' tone that...builds toward a fever pitch as what is true and what is a lie is blurred, often beyond recognition... Edge-of-your-seat action! RECOMMENDED The US Review of Books ""It's rare, in the thriller genre, to find such an ongoing and neat juxtaposition of interests and vying forces, [but] Michael Frost Beckner's Muir's Gambit...succeeds on so many levels that its course is not only unpredictable, but thoroughly delightful."" HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! Midwest Book Review ""Tony Mendez and I have been fans of Michael Frost Beckner's work for many years. From Spy Game, through the Aiken Trilogy of Spy Game books: Michael's writing takes you into the intricacies of the cat and mouse aspects of spying, and the choreography of working on the street in other cultures. We have always been two of his most enthusiastic readers!"" Jonna Mendez, former CIA Chief of Disguise ""Michael Frost Beckner is the rarest of spy novelists, a beautiful and compelling writer who also has a mastery of tradecraft and a deep understanding of how espionage really works."" Joe Weisberg, former CIA Officer and Emmy winning creator of The Americans"

Author Information

"""Michael Frost Beckner is the rarest of spy novelists, a beautiful and compelling writer who also has a mastery of tradecraft and a deep understanding of how espionage really works."" Joe Weisberg, former CIA Officer and Emmy winning creator of The Americans""Tony Mendez and I have been fans of Michael Beckner's work for many years - from The Agency, through Spy Game and his trilogy of Spy Game books. He captures the essence of spies and the cat and mouse choreography of espionage."" Jonna Mendez, former CIA Chief of Disguise""[Beckner] evoke[s]...the moral ambiguities of John le Carr�, the technical precision of Tom Clancy, and the violent impact of Robert Ludlum."" US Review of Books After a degree in Novel Writing from University of Southern California under PEN/Faulkner winner T.C. Boyle, Michael Frost Beckner began a Hollywood career as writing assistant to Academy Award winner Barry Levinson on ""Good Morning, Vietnam"" and ""Rain Man"". In 1989, Michael Frost Beckner's script for ""Sniper"" launched a military-thriller franchise now in production on its ninth sequel. Three consecutive record-breaking spec script sales and three films later, Tony Scott directed Beckner's original screenplay ""Spy Game."" An international blockbuster that paired Robert Redford and Brad Pitt as CIA partners and rivals, it is now a classic in the espionage genre. Branching into television with his CIA-based drama ""The Agency"" for CBS, Beckner's pilot predicted Osama bin Laden's terror attack and the War on Terror four months before 9/11. In that series alone, Beckner would go on to predictively dramatize three more international terror events. Having penned close to 100 original screenplays, adaptations, and teleplays in the employ of every major film studio, television network, and cable outlet, he is a Hollywood institution. As a commentator on American espionage, Beckner has appeared on CNN, Fox News, CBS News, TF1 in France, and as a featured guest of Bill Maher on HBO. Now, in conjunction with the twentieth anniversary of ""Spy Game,"" Beckner returns to the world of Nathan Muir and Tom Bishop with the release of his trilogy of Spy Game novels: ""Muir's Gambit,"" ""Bishop's Endgame,"" and ""Aiken in Check.""He makes his home with his family in the Red Rock foothills of Las Vegas, Nevada."

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