Back in 2016, the first of my ‘Rubicon’ action thrillers – featuring reluctant hero and ex-MI6 officer Marc Dane – hit bookshelves. NOMAD was very popular with readers, and in the years that followed, I continued Marc’s adventures in the novels EXILE, GHOST, SHADOW, ROGUE and OUTLAW. As an experiment, I also wrote a serial novella called ROUGH AIR to help launch this website five years ago, which you can download for free here or by signing up to my Readers’ Club.
And the one question I keep getting is: “When is the next Marc Dane story coming out?”
I’m pleased to say the answer is “Next Week!”
Marc Dane, his partner Lucy Keyes and the rest of the Rubicon team have been away for a while after the explosive events of OUTLAW, but I still have more adventures planned for them; and while publishers have, for now, gone a little cold on fast-paced action-forward thrillers (right now it’s cosy crime that’s the flavour of the moment) there’s still a need for some high-speed, low-drag espionage exploits… And to be honest, I missed writing these folks!
So without further ado, from next week I’m presenting MOSCOW RULES, a free ten-part serial novella published twice a week via my Readers’ Club newsletter and this website; Readers’ Club members will get exclusive early access to new chapters, so if you haven’t already signed up, follow this link or type your email address in the box at the bottom of this page.
But what, you may ask, is MOSCOW RULES all about?
As the name suggests, the novella takes place in the Russian capital, finding Marc Dane on a mission to fulfil a request for his employer Ekko Solomon – the elderly Sergei Morozov, once a notorious KGB spymaster and now a retired Hero of the Soviet Union – has died unexpectedly, and Solomon dispatches Marc to pay his respects to this old adversary. But on the streets of Moscow, nothing is as it seems, and Marc quickly finds himself dragged into a deadly scavenger hunt for a prize that could cause chaos in the wrong hands…
I was inspired to write MOSCOW RULES after visiting the International Spy Museum in Washington DC, where I first came across the rules in question on a display. So the story goes, the “Moscow Rules” were an informal set of guidelines developed by CIA agents operating in the Russian city during the worst days of the Cold War – rules of thumb for surviving in what was the toughest of espionage postings of the modern age. If you’re interested in learning more about the rules and their origins, check out this book.
When I saw the list, inspiration struck – ten rules, ten themes, ten chapters! – and I decided to take Marc Dane on a mission behind the Iron Curtain and into the city where the remnants of the old Soviet Union and the bellicose New Russia collide.
MOSCOW RULES Part 1: ASSUME NOTHING goes live next week, and I hope you’ll follow along with Marc on his latest adventure…
(Moscow Rules infographic by profound_whatever)
