The Old Enemy by Henry Porter

Summary:

Ex-MI6 officer Paul Samson has been tasked with secretly guarding a gifted young woman, Zoe Freemantle. He is just beginning to tire of the job when he is attacked in the street by a freakish looking knifeman. It’s clear the target is on his back not hers. What he doesn’t know is who put it there.

At that moment, his mentor, the MI6 legend Robert Harland lies dead on a remote stretch of the Baltic coastline. Who needed to end the old spy’s life when he was, in any case, dying from a terminal illness? And what or who is Berlin Blue, the name scratched in the sketchbook beside his body?

A few hours later, Samson watches footage from the US Congress where billionaire philanthropist Denis Hisami is poisoned with a nerve agent while testifying – an attack that is as spectacular as it is lethal, but spares Anastasia Hisami, the love of Samson’s life.

Two things become clear. One, it was a big mistake to lose the mysterious Zoe Freemantle. And two, Robert Harland is making a final play from beyond the grave.

My Review:

Paul Samson is an ex-MI16 officer, but he now finds himself doing private work to pay the bills and now he has been hired to keep safe Zoe Freemantle. But now someone has tried to kill him just because he was keeping an eye on the young woman he was hired to protect. The Old Enemy (Quercus) by Henry Porter is the new gripping espionage thriller that is released today 15 April.

Sometimes it is always best to ask questions, but Samson took the job, and the money was good, but this job is more dangerous than he has realised and when news reaches Samson that his former colleague Robert Harland has been murdered, he soon realises that his own life is now in real danger and at any moment he could be next. All that he knows is that Zoe Freemantle worked for a powerful environmental organisation, but what is the connection?

Over in the States Samson’s friend Denis Hisami is giving evidence in Washington when he is poisoned with a neurotoxin, there is a real concern of something sinister like that of what happened in Salisbury. Now Paul Samson heads to Estonia to try and find the link that will lead his to those responsible for Harland’s murder as well as the poisoning of Hisami as well as the attempts on his own life.

It soon becomes clear that both Harland and Hisami were clearly on to something that involved an ex-Stasi agent. When Sampson is joined by Hisami’s wife they must act quickly and find who is responsible before anyone else is murdered and if they can strike at the heart of Washington then no-one is safe.

This is the first novel I have read by Henry Porter and is a pulsating read, the idea was created by Porter on the 30^th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall.

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416 Pages.

My thanks to Sophie Ransom (Midas PR) and Quercus for the review copy of The Old Enemy by Henry Porter.

The Old Enemy by Henry Porter is published by Quercus and is published today 15 April 2021 and is available to order through Waterstones, Amazon and through your local independent bookshop or through Bookshop.org that supports your local independent bookshop. UK Bookshop.org

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