BARBICAN: A STERLING McQUEEN SPY STORY

Let’s face it, most books in the spy genre these days rely far too much on gadgetry and over-the-top stunts that only happen in the movies. Isn’t it time someone returned to the vintage spy novel? Barbican is a political thriller written in the mold of the old spy classics. Our hero, Sterling McQueen, shuns modern technology in favor of the more reliable standbys of human intelligence and his own keen power of deduction. This is a mystery/thriller filled with intrigue, layered with nuance, and peppered with more twists and turns than an Alpine highway.

Hostages are being snatched all across Europe. They come from different countries and different backgrounds, but they all have two traits in common. They’re Jewish and they’re rich. German intelligence is close to solving the mystery when an asset—a professor of Middle Eastern studies—is kidnapped in Brussels. Sterling McQueen is dispatched by the Strategic Support Branch (SSB) in the United States to assist in the case. He discovers a tangled web of deception and secrecy that has world intelligence agencies chasing their own tails.

The adventure leads McQueen to Brussels, Munich, Zurich, Vienna, and a remote Austrian fortress or barbican. McQueen peels back the many layers of this case to discover he’s dealing with an unconventional kind of terrorist group. Their plan could totally realign the power structure of the world. They communicate in a unique code that McQueen has to solve if he’s going to stop them from carrying out their ultimate mission. 

From the author of The First Face of Janus and The God Players comes a political thriller so spellbinding it will keep you turning pages late into the night.