Top

We have updated our Privacy Policy Please take a moment to review it. By continuing to use this site, you agree to the terms of our updated Privacy Policy.

Ascension

On sale

15th July 2021

Price: £18.99

Select a format

Selected: Hardcover / ISBN-13: 9781408709955

Disclosure: If you buy products using the retailer buttons above, we may earn a commission from the retailers you visit.

‘One of our finest thriller writers’ Evening Standard

A BBC2 BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK 2021

Oliver Harris is always pure quality’ Ian Rankin

‘A fascinating tale of modern espionage in a unique setting’ Irish Independent

Three friends from a mission many years ago reconnect when one of them dies in mysterious circumstances on remote Ascension Island. Rory Bannatyne had been tasked with tapping a new transatlantic data cable, but a day before he was due to return home he is found hanged. When Kathryn Taylor, on the South Atlantic MI5 desk, begs ex-spy Elliot Kane to go over and investigate, he can’t say no, but it’s an uneasy reintroduction to the intelligence game.

Entirely isolated from the world, the disappearance of a young girl on the island at the same time as Rory’s death means local tensions are high. Elliot needs to discover what happened to her as well as to Rory. But the island contains more secrets than even the government knows, and it’s not going to give them up without a fight.

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING
Captivating…Gripping, relevant and frenetic. You’ll be hard pressed to put this one down for a second’ Amazon reader five star review

Stunning spy novel…This is the best of its genre I’ve read‘ Amazon reader five star review

A bit like a thinking person’s Lee Child‘ Amazon reader five star review

What's Inside

Read More Read Less

Reviews

Big Issue
A corker...Harris expertly keeps the plates spinning while breathing thrilling life into the ex-pat community and its moon surface existence
Maxim Jakubowski, Crime Time
Harris evokes a powerful sense of place in a landscape where the elements turn out be a character in its own right and the intrigue developing as a result of his investigation quickly sets up a rather frantic and tense finale. A bloody good read!
Ian Rankin, praise for A Shadow Intelligence
Oliver Harris is always pure quality and I'm loving the hell out of his foray into the contemporary spy novel. Elegant and compulsive'
Irish Independent
A fascinating tale of modern espionage in a unique setting
Jake Kerridge, Daily Telegraph
One of the best new spy series continues with ex-spook Elliot Kane reluctantly back in harness to investigate the suspicious death of a former colleague on Ascension Island. First-class cloak-and-dagger stuff against an unusual backdrop
Evening Standard
One of our finest thriller writers...Fans of his criminally underrated Belsey novels, about a corrupt London detective, will recognise some familiar themes, including a soft spot for heroic losers and an interest in the physical and mental remains of the Cold War. But it is the location that matters most of all, windswept and staffed by a mixtures of spooks, oddballs and drunks, and it will stay with you long after you close the book
Irish Times
A twisty, propulsive spy thriller, all set against the vividly evoked hellscape of one of the most remote islands in the world