Publishers Weekly
11/12/2018
Idealistic FBI agent Peter Sutherland, the hero of this uneven political thriller from bestseller Quirk (The 500), works the night shift in the White House situation room, standing by for an emergency call “that might never come.” Finally, he gets one from Rose Larkin, whose uncle and aunt, American counterintelligence agents Henry and Paulette Campbell, have instructed her to make a “night action” call and flee their house in a residential Washington, D.C., neighborhood. The Campbells possess a red ledger containing evidence of meetings between a high-placed U.S. government official and Russian intelligence officers, and a Russian operative is prepared to kill for it. Initially an innocent pawn in a game of high-stakes intrigue, Rose soon becomes a target, and Peter has found himself a mission. He’s a sympathetic figure with something to prove (his FBI counterintelligence agent father was accused of being a traitor), and Quirk keeps the action moving at a cinematic clip. But Peter is too earnest by half, and those expecting nuance will be disappointed. Still, readers looking for a highly contemporary take on relations between the U.S. and Russia will be rewarded. Agent: Dan Conaway, Writers House. (Jan.)
From the Publisher
The Night Agent is a whirlwind of a book, a captivating narrative that takes us inside the White House’s inner sanctum and the shadowy machinations surrounding it. A powerful and taut thriller.” — Mark Greaney #1 bestselling author of Mission Critical
“This story is impossible to put out of mind.... Relevant and revealing, this is one of the best thrillers to come along in years.” — Michael Connelly
“Strap in for one hell of a ride. The Night Agent is full of twists and surprises you’ll never see coming.” — Ben Coes, New York Times bestselling author of Bloody Sunday
“Matthew Quirk moves into David Baldacci and John Grisham territory with The Night Agent, a paranoid, pulse-pounding thriller that could not be more prescient. If you’re wondering where the best of the next generation of suspense talent is headed, look no further.” — Joseph Finder
“Matthew Quirk is rapidly proving himself to be among our finest thriller writers, and The Night Agent is the latest undeniable evidence. Quirk writes rapid-fire, page-turning action with unusual grace and intelligence, and his latest American nightmare is guaranteed to keep readers up late.” — Michael Koryta, New York Times bestselling author of How It Happened
“Baldacci’s debut [Absolute Power] kept me awake half the night. I’m still a fan… I had the same reaction when I picked up The Night Agent… Best to start this at the beginning of a weekend, as you’ll be burning the midnight oil ‘til you’re finished.” — Newark Star Ledger
“Plenty of breathless one-more-chapter, stay-up-late suspense wrapped around a meaty and timely story ... irresistible.” — Lee Child
“Quirk’s chilling and modern scenario of foreign influence reaching into the highest reaches of government will be thoroughly enjoyed by political thriller junkies.” — Library Journal (starred review)
“Quirk returns to the thriller scene with a thundering bang… Quirk’s latest feels like he’s been churning out political thrillers for decades, hitting on a timely plot that starts out fast and only speeds up as the story unfolds… [A] high-stakes, nail-biting political thriller.” — TheRealBookSpy.com
“Lots of good, tense plotting… A real pleasure of espionage fiction is tradecraft secrets, and Quirk doesn’t disappoint.” — Booklist
“The Night Agent is a compelling high-stakes thriller, lightning fast, relentlessly suspenseful and unsettlingly realistic.” — Hank Phillippi Ryan, bestselling author of Trust Me
Praise for the earlier novels: “A thundering David-and-Goliath tale of corruption… A real page turner, with high stakes action that doesn’t stop.” — Booklist (starred review) on The 500
“The Firm goes to Washington, only with a whole lot more action.” — James Patterson on The 500
“Sophisticated storytelling [and] whiplash pacing . . . Clever twists and startling surprises.” — Washington Post on Cold Barrel Zero
“The action dazzles. The characters feel authentic and fully fleshed. The threats seem all too real.” — Los Angeles Review of Books on Cold Barrel Zero
“The story is expertly stripped down, the action relentless, and the characters multilayered. A lethal game of cat and mouse.” — Kirkus Reviews on Cold Barrel Zero
“A tour de force. Dead Man Switch turns the intelligence community’s ‘wilderness of mirrors’ into a high-speed racetrack, delivering twist after twist toward a literally explosive conclusion… Quirk shows us the human cost of living—and dying—on the gray edges of national security.” — Joseph Finder
“This is a nonstop, heart-pounding ride in which moral blacks and whites turn gray in “the efficient alignment of power and interests” that is big-time politics. Quirk has another high-powered hit on his hands.” — Booklist (starred review) on The Directive
“The Directive does for the Fed what… Aaron Sorkin did for the White House in “The West Wing”, and what Beau Willimon is doing with “House of Cards”… Drips with the kind of eye for the telling detail that only a canny reporter, detective or spy possesses.” — Forbes
“A plot that twists like a cobra in a sack, a whip-crack pace and engaging characters make The Night Agent a very classy thriller.” — Financial Times
"This is David Baldacci territory, but done with a refreshing vigour by… Quirk who is making a name for himself as a thriller writer to watch." — Daily Mail (London)
Michael Connelly
This story is impossible to put out of mind.... Relevant and revealing, this is one of the best thrillers to come along in years.
Joseph Finder
Matthew Quirk moves into David Baldacci and John Grisham territory with The Night Agent, a paranoid, pulse-pounding thriller that could not be more prescient. If you’re wondering where the best of the next generation of suspense talent is headed, look no further.
Michael Koryta
Matthew Quirk is rapidly proving himself to be among our finest thriller writers, and The Night Agent is the latest undeniable evidence. Quirk writes rapid-fire, page-turning action with unusual grace and intelligence, and his latest American nightmare is guaranteed to keep readers up late.
Booklist
Lots of good, tense plotting… A real pleasure of espionage fiction is tradecraft secrets, and Quirk doesn’t disappoint.
TheRealBookSpy.com
Quirk returns to the thriller scene with a thundering bang… Quirk’s latest feels like he’s been churning out political thrillers for decades, hitting on a timely plot that starts out fast and only speeds up as the story unfolds… [A] high-stakes, nail-biting political thriller.
Ben Coes
Strap in for one hell of a ride. The Night Agent is full of twists and surprises you’ll never see coming.
Lee Child
Plenty of breathless one-more-chapter, stay-up-late suspense wrapped around a meaty and timely story ... irresistible.
Mark Greaney #1 bestselling author of Mission Critical
The Night Agent is a whirlwind of a book, a captivating narrative that takes us inside the White House’s inner sanctum and the shadowy machinations surrounding it. A powerful and taut thriller.”
Newark Star Ledger
Baldacci’s debut [Absolute Power] kept me awake half the night. I’m still a fan… I had the same reaction when I picked up The Night Agent… Best to start this at the beginning of a weekend, as you’ll be burning the midnight oil ‘til you’re finished.
Booklist
Lots of good, tense plotting… A real pleasure of espionage fiction is tradecraft secrets, and Quirk doesn’t disappoint.
Washington Post on Cold Barrel Zero
Sophisticated storytelling [and] whiplash pacing . . . Clever twists and startling surprises.
Hank Phillippi Ryan
The Night Agent is a compelling high-stakes thriller, lightning fast, relentlessly suspenseful and unsettlingly realistic.
Los Angeles Review of Books on Cold Barrel Zero
The action dazzles. The characters feel authentic and fully fleshed. The threats seem all too real.
Daily Mail (London)
"This is David Baldacci territory, but done with a refreshing vigour by… Quirk who is making a name for himself as a thriller writer to watch."
Forbes
The Directive does for the Fed what… Aaron Sorkin did for the White House in “The West Wing”, and what Beau Willimon is doing with “House of Cards”… Drips with the kind of eye for the telling detail that only a canny reporter, detective or spy possesses.
Financial Times
A plot that twists like a cobra in a sack, a whip-crack pace and engaging characters make The Night Agent a very classy thriller.
James Patterson on The 500
The Firm goes to Washington, only with a whole lot more action.
Booklist (starred review) on The Directive
This is a nonstop, heart-pounding ride in which moral blacks and whites turn gray in “the efficient alignment of power and interests” that is big-time politics. Quirk has another high-powered hit on his hands.
Booklist (starred review) on The 500
Praise for the earlier novels: “A thundering David-and-Goliath tale of corruption… A real page turner, with high stakes action that doesn’t stop.
Financial Times
A plot that twists like a cobra in a sack, a whip-crack pace and engaging characters make The Night Agent a very classy thriller.
Booklist on The 500
Praise for the earlier novels: “A thundering David-and-Goliath tale of corruption… A real page turner, with high stakes action that doesn’t stop.
Booklist on The Directive
This is a nonstop, heart-pounding ride in which moral blacks and whites turn gray in “the efficient alignment of power and interests” that is big-time politics. Quirk has another high-powered hit on his hands.
Mark Greaney #1 bestselling author of-Mission Critical
The Night Agent is a whirlwind of a book, a captivating narrative that takes us inside the White House’s inner sanctum and the shadowy machinations surrounding it. A powerful and taut thriller.”
Kirkus Reviews
2018-10-02
After all their meddling with America, the Russians have placed a mole in the White House, leaving over-his-head surveillance specialist Peter Sutherland the only man who can stop them.
The son of a wrongly disgraced FBI spy chief whose alleged treachery has tainted his own career, Peter is surprised to land a job in the White House situation room. His assignment is to sit by a special phone through the wee hours, in the rare event that someone calls with an urgent coded message. After almost a year of phone-sitting, he finally gets such a call from Rose Larkin, a panicked young woman who has just escaped the bullet-riddled home of her aunt and uncle. Counterintelligence agents, they were thought by the Russians to be in possession of a hotly pursued red ledger. Rose is drawn to Peter for his caring nature. He is increasingly committed to helping her, even if that means lying to his superiors, as the people whom he thought he could trust prove untrustworthy. Can he even turn for help to President Michael Travers, his basketball buddy? Though some of the spy stuff is so standard as to be silly, Quirk keeps things moving. But the spark and surprise of his past thrillers, such as Cold Barrel Zero (2016), are largely missing. And though Quirk has never drawn characters with much depth, the paper-thinness of Peter (who disdains the Hardy Boys but frequently seems to be emulating them) and Rose (one of whose main roles is to point out when Peter is bleeding) is disappointing.
Quirk goes for timeliness in imagining the Russians taking control of Washington, but while the book does resonate to a small degree with current events, reality beat fiction to such possibilities as our enemy owning a sitting U.S. president.
