Henry Porter, who has been widely hailed as a next-generation John le Carré, is a bestselling author in the UK and has won the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award. From the refugee camps of Greece to the mountains of Macedonia, a thirteen-year-old boy is making his way to Germany and to safety. Codenamed “Firefly,” he holds vital intelligence: unparalleled insight into a vicious ISIS terror cell, and details of their plans. But the terrorists are hot on his trail, determined he won’t live to pass on the information.

When MI6 become aware of Firefly and what he knows, the race is on to find him. Luc Samson, ex-MI6 agent and now private eye, finds himself recruited to the cause. Fluent in Arabic thanks to his Lebanese heritage and himself the product of an earlier era of violent civil war, Samson’s job is to find Firefly, win his trust, and get him to safety.

A devastatingly timely thriller following the refugee trail from Syria to Europe, Firefly is a sophisticated, breathtaking race against time from an author who brings a whole new level of urgency to the genre.

Praise for Firefly

“With its vivid portrait of the flood of refugees moving west from Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey, the book could not be more timely, and Porter’s sympathy for the dispossessed is as cogent here as his skill at sustaining narrative tension.”—The Guardian

“Splendid … tension is high throughout. Precocious 13-year-old Syrian Naji is an appealing, intelligent hero.” –The Times   

“Porter can be trusted to know exactly how much sentimentality, how much action and how much inside information will make the perfect mixture. He is also a wizard with words. A very good thriller.” –Literary Review

“A classic chase thriller with an on-the-scenes look at the Syrian refugee crisis—it doesn’t get more contemporary than this.”—Joseph Kanon, Edgar-winning author of Los Alamos and Defectors

“Firefly proves once again that Porter is both his own man and the proud carrier of the flag first unfurled by John le Carre more than fifty years ago.  British espionage fiction is the best in the world, and Porter is part of the reason why.”—Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher series, most recently Gone Tomorrow

“A welcome return . . . Firefly seems ripped from the headlines and is both timely and terrific.”—Mick Herron, CWA Gold Dagger Award-winning author of Dead Lions

“Firefly accomplishes what too few novels today even try to do:  this engrossing chase story of terrorism, spies and refugees takes the reader through the realities of our current war-torn world’s innocents even as the novel entertains.  This is an important thriller about the real world we all must survive.”—James Grady, author of Six Days of the Condor and Last Days of the Condor

“The eagerly awaited return of an espionage master.”—Charles Cumming, author of A Divided Spy

Praise for Henry Porter:

“A sophisticated, engrossing, and important political thriller.”—Washington Post, on The Bell Ringers

“Superb.”—Boston Globe, on The Bell Ringers

“Read it and you’ll be hooked.”—Dallas Morning News, on The Bell Ringers

“A first-rate thriller . . . Porter sustains an elaborate plot skillfully and portrays memorable, multi-faceted characters.”—Sunday Times (UK), on Brandenburg Gate

“A powerful, propulsive piece of thriller writing.”—Observer (UK), on Empire State

“Henry Porter has fast become one of the masters of the genre.”—Sunday Telegraph (UK), on Brandenburg Gate

“Clever, gripping.”—Philip Kerr, on Brandenburg Gate

“A wonderful novel. I read it addictively and was sorry the minute it was over. It’s way too good to be called a thriller.”—Richard Ford, on The Bell Ringers

“For those who like political thrillers, this is one of the season’s best: scary, informative and, alas, eminently believable.”—Economist, on The Bell Ringers

“Henry Porter writes fabulous novels . . . A spy novel for everyone who loves le Carré and Deighton, but with a crisp modern woman in charge. You won’t put this novel down until the final paragraph.”—Globe & Mail (Canada), on The Bell Ringers

“A topnotch Cold War thriller . . . [a] tour de force on a par with John le Carré.”—Library Journal (starred review), on Brandenburg Gate

Excerpt

‘The witness who escaped the massacre at Hajar Saqat was in the camp a year later and heard the voice of the man he had seen slaughter his neighbours. He was able to put a face to the killer, who had been masked that day. The witness was able to identify two others as probably being in Hajar Saqat.’

‘So this witness knows what they look like,’ said Samson. ‘Presumably there’s some photographic record of these men. They have to be registered, fingerprinted and photographed if they are to be accepted as Syrian refugees, right? So it’s simply a matter of taking your witness through the photographs and circulating the faces.’

‘We don’t know which camp it is,’ said O’Neill.

‘The witness vanished before we could act on the report,’ said Nyman. ‘He’s on the road to Northern Europe. I am afraid we don’t even know the boy’s name.’

‘Boy? You said boy!’ said Samson.

‘Yes, the source of this intelligence is a boy of about twelve or thirteen. But I should stress that he’s exceptionally precocious – very bright and well able to look after himself, apparently.’ He stopped and peered at a paper in front of him, then looked up at Samson. ‘What we want you to do is find him.’

Before he’d finished, Samson was shaking his head. ‘Let me just get this right. You’re asking me to find a boy on any one of the four or five migrant routes into the EU, each of which is at least two thousand kilometres long and has many thousands of people on it?’