Someone wants Russian millionaire Dmitry Lebedev dead. After years flying under the radar in Sydney, he’s just had a narrow escape when a sex worker is poisoned in his hotel room. In desperation he contacts his former CIA case officer, Ronnie Johnson, offering to expose a traitor inside the Australian government in return for protection.
John Bailey has spent decades risking his life to break news stories. Along the way he’s made some interesting friends, including Ronnie – who saved his life in Iraq – and Scarlett Merriman, whose night with Lebedev left her in a coma. And now they both need Bailey’s help.
While Bailey investigates what happened to Scarlett, Ronnie Johnson is calling in an old debt. Because the same people going after Lebedev have framed Ronnie for murder.
From Canberra to Moscow to Beijing, Killer Traitor Spy uncovers the new lines of espionage in the twenty-first century.
Tim Ayliffe’s full-throttle page-turner is prefaced with a rather terrifying quote from Mike Burgess, Director-General of Security ASIO: ‘More Australians are being targeted for espionage and foreign interference than at any time in Australia’s history’. I did a double-take when I read that, convinced this was part of Ayliffe’s gripping fiction. But it’s not – it’s a fact.
This, coupled with the fact Ayliffe, a seasoned writer and veteran journalist (like his lead character), goes on to say in his Author’s Notes that everything he writes in his fiction either ‘has happened, will happen or could happen’. In this thriller, you have some very high stakes to digest as you rip through it. I’d place it in the realms of Robert Ludum and John Le Carre with a dash of Ray G Barrett’s Les Norton series.
Killer Traitor Spy is a continuum in the John Bailey thriller series. Ayliffe is right at home with both his lead character, journalist John Bailey, and CIA expert Ronnie Johnson. Ayliffe provides both point of view in this dual narrative, as the tale seamlessly careens over continents.
Beginning with a scene at a hotel in The Rocks, Sydney, Ayliffe is deft at describing a sense of place – from the tiny details to the local vibe; he possesses a talent for setting the scene for a wild amount of action to take place. There’s also an unabashed Aussie voice which is grounded and authentic.
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