*A Telegraph Book of the Year*

A Times Best Book of Summer 2023

*Shortlisted for the Parliamentary Book Awards*

An astonishing investigation into the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war – from the corridors of the Kremlin to the trenches of Mariupol.

The Russo-Ukrainian War is the most serious geopolitical crisis since the Second World War – and yet at the heart of the conflict is a mystery. Vladimir Putin apparently lurched from a calculating, subtle master of opportunity to a reckless gambler, putting his regime – and Russia itself – at risk of destruction. Why?

Drawing on over 25 years’ experience as a correspondent in Moscow, as well as his own family ties to Russia and Ukraine, journalist Owen Matthews takes us through the poisoned historical roots of the conflict, into the Covid bubble where Putin conceived his invasion plans in a fog of paranoia about Western threats, and finally into the inner circle around Ukrainian president and unexpected war hero Volodimir Zelensky.

Using the accounts of current and former insiders from the Kremlin and its propaganda machine, the testimony of captured Russian soldiers and on-the-ground reporting from Russia and Ukraine, Overreach tells the story not only of the war’s causes but how the first six months unfolded.

With its panoramic view, Overreach is an authoritative, unmissable record of a conflict that shocked Europe to its core.

‘This is Robert Harris storytelling territory’ Daily Mail
‘Outstanding’ Sunday Times
‘Tense, exciting and authentic’ Charles Cumming, author of Judas 62
‘Stunning’ The Times
‘Brilliantly plotted’ John Sweeney, author of Killer in the Kremlin
‘A standout thriller’ Financial Times

1963. In a desolate Russian penal colony, the radio broadcasts news of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy…

Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vasin’s new posting as director of a gulag camp in the middle of the frozen tundra is far from a promotion. This is where disgraced agents, like Vasin, disappear – sent to die forgotten. And quietly. But tensions in the camp are running high and when a violent revolt breaks out, Vasin finds himself on the run. With him is a mysterious prisoner – who holds the key to the most dangerous secret in the world: who ordered Kennedy’s murder.

In a breathless race that takes them through the Soviet Union – from the barren Siberian wastelands to the stunning halls of the Katerina Palace and the grey streets of Leningrad and Moscow – Vasin must stay one step ahead of the most ruthless spy and police organizations in the world . . . and keep the most wanted man in Russia alive. It’s a journey that will push Vasin’s loyalty, morality and his patriotism to the limit. And he must confront the ultimate choice: fall in line, or die fighting the system.

With masterful storytelling that weaves together an explosive moment in history with the cutthroat machinations of Soviet politics, Owen Matthews’ White Fox captures the paradigm-shifting assassination from a unique Soviet point of view. This is a page-turning thriller – a race against time across Soviet Russia, where the participants face impossible odds and must decide between truth, justice and all-out war.

*Shortlisted for the Parliamentary Book Awards*

An astonishing investigation into the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war – from the corridors of the Kremlin to the trenches of Mariupol.

The Russo-Ukrainian War is the most serious geopolitical crisis since the Second World War – and yet at the heart of the conflict is a mystery. Vladimir Putin apparently lurched from a calculating, subtle master of opportunity to a reckless gambler, putting his regime – and Russia itself – at risk of destruction. Why?

Drawing on over 25 years’ experience as a correspondent in Moscow, as well as his own family ties to Russia and Ukraine, journalist Owen Matthews takes us through the poisoned historical roots of the conflict, into the Covid bubble where Putin conceived his invasion plans in a fog of paranoia about Western threats, and finally into the inner circle around Ukrainian president and unexpected war hero Volodimir Zelensky.

Using the accounts of current and former insiders from the Kremlin and its propaganda machine, the testimony of captured Russian soldiers and on-the-ground reporting from Russia and Ukraine, Overreach tells the story not only of the war’s causes but how the first six months unfolded.

With its panoramic view, Overreach is an authoritative, unmissable record of a conflict that shocked Europe to its core.

One the least known but most terrifying moments in modern history – when the fate of the world lay with a lone, nervous Soviet naval officer one hundred meters under the Caribbean sea – lies at the heart of this breathtaking new Cold War thriller from the author of the acclaimed Black Sun.

The year is 1962, and KGB Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vasin is searching for ghosts: for evidence of the long-rumoured existence of an American spy embedded at the highest echelons of Soviet power. But it’s while on this wild goose chase, a high-stakes espionage race against a rival State agency, that Vasin first hears whispers of an ominous top-secret undertaking: Operation Anadyr.

As tensions flare between Nikita Khrushchev and President Kennedy over Russian missiles hidden in Cuba, four Soviet submarines – each carrying tactical ballistic missiles armed with thermonuclear warheads – are ordered to make a covert run at the U.S. blockade in the Caribbean . . .

The year is 1962 and in Moscow KGB officer Alexander Vasin feels as if he’s chasing ghosts. Ordered to find an American spy rumoured to be embedded at the highest echelon of Soviet power, he’s caught up in a dangerous game of espionage against not only the CIA but also state rival agencies.

But it’s while pursuing this infiltrator that Vasin learns of a top-secret operation that could push the world to the brink of war. The Kremlin has deployed short-range nuclear missiles on Cuba, barely ninety miles from the US coast, and, to support its high-risk gambit, dispatched four submarines to the Caribbean. Each is armed with a nuclear payload – and on board one of them there is an officer who is dangerously unfit for command.

As tensions between the USSR and the USA escalate, the world holds its breath-and Vasin faces an extraordinary dilemma: how to warn his enemy without betraying his country.

Weaving together historical fact with nail-bitingly tense fiction, the acclaimed author of Black Sun brings one of the most terrifying stand-offs in modern times to life in his stunning new Cold War thriller.

‘A stunning debut thriller . . . utterly terrifying . . . absolutely riveting’ DAILY MAIL

‘Fascinating . . . fearsome’ FREDERICK FORSYTH

‘Enthralling’ FINANCIAL TIMES

‘Thrilling . . . compelling’ SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE

1961. Hidden deep within central Soviet Russia is a place that doesn’t appear on any map: a city called Arzamas-16. Here dedicated scientists and technicians are building the most powerful nuclear device the world will ever see – three thousand times more powerful than Hiroshima.

But days before the bomb is to be tested, a young physicist is found dead. His body contains enough radioactive poison to kill thousands. The authorities believe it is suicide – they want the corpse disposed of, the incident filed and forgotten. But Moscow is alarmed by what’s going on in this strange, isolated place.

And so KGB major Alexander Vasin is sent to Arzamas to investigate. What he finds there is unlike anything he’s experienced before. His wits will be tested against some of the Soviet Union’s most brilliant minds – eccentrics, patriots and dissidents who, because their work is considered to be of such vital importance, have been granted the freedom to think and act, live and love as they wish. For in Arzamas, nothing can be allowed to get in the way of the project. Not even murder . . .

Intricately researched, cunningly plotted and brilliantly told, Black Sun is a fast-paced and timely thriller set at the height – and in the heart – of Soviet power from the acclaimed author of An Impeccable Spy.

What readers are saying:
‘Woven around real events, people and places, it’s genuinely terrifying stuff’ *****

‘The twists and turns and intrigue kept me on tenterhooks’ *****

‘Brings alive one of the most fascinating periods of Soviet history’ *****