the books
BOOK ONE
THE WAR IN THE DARK
Europe. 1963. And the true Cold War is fought on the borders of this world, at the edges of the light.
When the assassination of a traitor trading with the enemy goes terribly wrong, British Intelligence agent Christopher Winter must flee London. In a tense alliance with a lethal, mysterious woman named Karina Lazarova, he s caught in a quest for hidden knowledge from centuries before, an occult secret written in a language of fire. A secret that will give supremacy to the nation that possesses it.
Racing against the Russians, the chase takes them from the demon-haunted Hungarian border to treasure-laden tunnels beneath Berlin, from an impossible house in Vienna to a bomb-blasted ruin in Bavaria where something unholy waits, born of the power of white fire and black glass . . .
It's a world of treachery, blood and magic. A world at war in the dark.
BOOK TWO
THE SPIDER DANCE
It's 1965 and Christopher Winter is trying to carve a new life, a new identity, beyond his days in British Intelligence.
Recruited by London's gangland he now finds himself on the wrong side of the law - and about to discover that the secret service has a way of claiming back its own. Who is the fatally alluring succubus working honeytraps for foreign paymasters? What is the true secret of the Shadowless, a fabled criminal cabal deadlier than the Mafia? And why do both parties covet long- buried caskets said to hold the hearts of kings?
Winter must confront the buried knowledge of his own past to survive - but is he ready to embrace the magic that created the darkness waiting there?
INTERCEPTED INTELLIGENCE REPORTS
“This book had a tremendous sense of paranoia and uncertainty, and a plot that kept me riveted to find out how it would resolve.”
“A terrific adventure.”
“Played with tons of wit and style… This is something new that entertains like something old.”
“Nick Setchfield’s The War in the Dark is a thrilling, shocking, action-packed delight!”
“A vivid and compelling page-turner, which propels you from scene to scene with such verve and invention that you have no choice but to keep reading. It’s the sort of book you pick up, thinking, ‘I’ll just have five minutes’, and an hour later you’re still feverishly turning the pages, because you have to find out what happens next.”
“Nick Setchfield’s dark, lightning-quick The War in the Dark... is a tight, high-intensity spook-fest that never wavers from its vision. Setchfield is a master at choosing just the right word to remind us where we are and how we should feel. The reader may rarely get a chance to breathe, but this breathlessness is invigorating.”