The Whispering Dead - (Cordelia Hemlock Novel) by David Mark (Hardcover)

About the Book

Cordelia Hemlock is teetering on the verge of joining MI6 when she meets the enigmatic Walt, a high-ranking member of the Secret Intelligence Service, who tells her: They won't want you to do well. They won't ever trust you. They don't trust me and I'm one of them. She takes this as a challenge rather than a warning. It may be a mistake ...

Book Synopsis

The past comes back to haunt MI6 secret agent Cordelia Hemlock in this spy thriller from Sunday Times bestselling author David Mark - "Top-level espionage fiction" (Booklist Starred Review)

Cordelia Hemlock is teetering on the verge of joining MI6 when she meets the enigmatic Walt, a high-ranking member of the Secret Intelligence Service, who tells her: They won't want you to do well. They won't ever trust you. They don't trust me and I'm one of them. She takes this as a challenge rather than a warning. She wants to protect the nation. Serve Queen and country. Who would turn down such a glorious opportunity?

Fourteen years later, Cordelia is desk-bound after finishing an undercover operation and going quietly mad with boredom. So when the call comes through on the top-secret Pandora line - so-called after the locked-box the telephone is kept in - she answers it.

It's Walt. No longer officially MI6, he still inhabits the murky world of intelligence, where information always comes with a price. He tells her he has a secret to share with her - and only her. And once she knows it, nothing will ever be the same again . . .

A follow-up to the critically acclaimed psychological thriller The Mausoleum, this is a twisty, page-turning tale of friendship and divided loyalties set against the dark, forbidding landscape of the rural Borderlands.

Review Quotes

Espionage fans will have fun trying to separate fact from fiction-- "Publishers Weekly"

Top-level espionage fiction-- "Booklist Starred Review"

A brisk, astute espionage thriller with a compelling moral core-- "Kirkus Reviews"

A fantastic achievement - dark and compelling with characters you will never forget-- "Award-winning author Elly Griffiths on The Whispering Dead"

[Mark is] on the level of Scottish and English contemporaries such as DENISE MINA, VAL MCDERMID, and PETER ROBINSON-- "Library Journal Starred Review of Cruel Mercy"

A chilling entry from a master of the dark psychological thriller-- "Kirkus Reviews on Suspicious Minds"

A fine police procedural . . . IAN RANKIN fans will be pleased-- "Publishers Weekly on Past Life"

A mystery to savor-- "Kirkus Reviews Starred Review of Past Life"

Exceptional . . . Mark is writing at the top of his game-- "Publishers Weekly Starred Review of The Mausoleum"

Gripping from start to finish-- "Booklist on Borrowed Time"

Sure to please fans of CATRIONA McPHERSON-- "Kirkus Reviews on The Mausoleum"

About the Author

David Mark spent seven years as crime reporter for the Yorkshire Post and now writes full-time. A former Richard & Judy pick, and a Sunday Times bestseller, he is the author of the DS Aector McAvoy series and a number of standalone thrillers. He lives in Northumberland with his family.