Aiken In Check - (The Aiken Trilogy) by Michael Frost Beckner (Hardcover)

About the Book

This second sequel to the movie Spy Game sees Russell Aiken defect to Cuba to trade his life for the woman he loves, unaware he's triggered a dangerous agenda linked to Muir and Bishop in China.

Book Synopsis

"Freighted with moral, philosophical weight, Aiken in Check pits the restless, free-associating mind of its CIA narrator, Russell Aiken, against the Agency itself in this epic climax of the Spy Game Trilogy that thrills as it digs deep." EDITOR'S PICK Publisher's Weekly

"Brilliantly executed...these are first-class spy novels with a smart, gritty atmosphere." - CHARLES CUMMING, New York Times & Sunday Times Best-selling Author of KENNEDY 35 and BOX 88

Gladys: Feeling a little paranoid on our last day?

Nathan Muir: When did Noah build the ark, Gladys? Before the rain, before the rain.

Love or country? To save one you must sacrifice the other... The epic climax to the Aiken Trilogy rooted in the Robert Redford/Brad Pitt film Spy Game, it's the question faced by Nathan Muir protégé Russell Aiken when he defects to Cuba.

Haunted by the ghosts of past, present, and future spies, Aiken is trapped in a lethal battle with Havana intelligence officers desperate to discover the CIA's top spy hidden inside Fidel Castro's government.

Aiken must betray Nathan Muir and Tom Bishop-exposing CIA operations that link Cuba, China, and Venezuela in a startling conspiracy-in order to rescue the woman he loves...all in a single night without leaving the hotel room of his interrogation.

2023 FINALIST, BEST THRILLER AWARDS "Aiken in Check is one of the year's best spy thrillers." - BestThrillers

"Reading Beckner's Spy Game saga is like seeing Picasso's Guernica for the first time. A Cubist deconstruction of the spy trade coupled with an interior absurdist monologue worthy of Vonnegut." Alex Abella, New York Times Notable Author & Emmy Award-winning journalist

"It's policy versus heart... Will challenge you in ways you haven't been challenged before." TONY SCOTT director of Spy Game

Bursting with Aiken's wit and erstwhile confusion, Aiken in Check is a love letter confession, wrapped in the haunting of three spies' dangerous past, on a mind-bending, time-twisting, betrayal-baiting Christmas Eve that by dawn will see him lose everything or become the grandmaster of the Spy Game.

"A thinking man's thriller... A real adrenaline blast... I loved it!" ROBERT REDFORD, Spy Game

"The moral ambiguities of John le Carré, the technical precision of Tom Clancy, and the violent impact of Robert Ludlum." The US Review of Books

Buy Now and return to the world of Nathan Muir and Tom Bishop, but be warned: in the Spy Game, "It's not how you play the game... It's how the game plays you."

Review Quotes

Praise for Aiken in Check

"Freighted with moral, philosophical weight...the epic climax of this trilogy...thrills as it digs deep." EDITOR'S CHOICE Publishers Weekly Booklife

"An espionage thriller that embraces more literary prowess than most genre reads and is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED." Midwest Book Review

"Thoroughly mind-bending, time-twisting, betrayal-baiting... The rare novel that teaches as well as entertain." - The US Review of Books

Praise for Michael Frost Beckner & the Spy Game universe:

"Michael Frost Beckner is the rarest of spy novelists, a beautiful and compelling writer who also has a mastery of tradecraft and a deep understanding of how espionage really works." Joe Weisberg, former CIA Officer and Emmy winning creator of The Americans

"Michael Frost Beckner serves up a judicious blend of showy action, political intrigue, ticking-clock suspense, and intramural CIA one-upmanship for mainstream entertainment." Variety

"You can set off a million firecrackers, but if you don't have a story to tell, you have nothing but smoke... Michael Frost Beckner's electrifying script is a thinking man's thriller... A real adrenaline blast... I loved it!" Robert Redford, from Robert Redford: The Biography by Michael Feeney Callahan

"A chess game...laid out on the real world of espionage." Brad Pitt, Hollywood.com/Screen Slam

"It's policy versus heart... Will challenge you in ways you haven't been challenged before." Tony Scott

"Trades in the kind of shadings and moral quandaries that have been the meat and drink of Le Carré." The Boston Globe

"A taut...timely...intelligent thriller." The Washington Post

"Asks tough, unflinching questions about America's responsibility to maintain world peace-and the price we are willing to pay in order to accomplish that." The Miami Herald

"Enormously satisfying." San Francisco Chronicle

"Pretty, gritty, engrossing and fun." The Oregonian