Asset - a crime thriller which questions the extent of the Russian Mafia’s reach and throws new light on a clandestine organisation that remains one-step ahead of both law enforcement and the criminal underworld.

State crime, money-laundering and drug trafficking leave an indelible mark on this riveting debut novel, inspired by the author’s own unnerving experiences of decades spent living and working in the former Soviet Union.

The story: 

Whilst at university working-class maths student Sam Mitchell begins a surreptitious relationship with a blue-blooded debutante. Unbeknownst to Sam, her family has a close connection with the security services. As a graduate, Sam Mitchell leaves England, turning his back on romance, announcing he’ll travel the silk roads of Eurasia: living as the old-world traders once did, working for a meal and a place to sleep.

 Years later, the body of a dockworker is found floating off the shore of the Northern Caspian. Revenge follows: an anonymous tip-off, to British Intelligence, exposes a money- laundering scheme. 

Sam Mitchell arrives in the energy capital of Kazakhstan: after finding work at the offices of a geophysical exploration company, a series of events unfold with Sam being inextricably drawn into an insidious criminal underworld: one that appears to underscore almost every aspect of life in Kazakhstan. With foolish naivety, he becomes embroiled in a drug trafficking operation run by the Russian Mafia. Implicated, he absconds. With news reports proclaiming him a wanted criminal, Sam fast realises the tentacles of this vast crime empire will soon snare him.

Sam’s hope of sneaking across Europe by way of the old traders’ routes goes awry when injury brings him up lame. With both a harsh Siberian winter and merciless law enforcement closing in, he decides to seek refuge with a family who, it transpires, has more to hide than those who hunt him.

But, who is the real Sam Mitchell? Is he a thief? Is he an MI6 asset? Is he an innocent? How might we know? He can certainly spin a line with the ease of a trained professional.

Smuggled across Russia with audacious precision and with his injuries tended, his appearance altered and a Russian passport, Sam finally escapes to Japan. Here he learns of his parents’ assassination. With revenge all consuming and knowing he is reportedly now dead, allegedly having drowned attempting to swim a river in Western Russia, Sam considers an about turn: but little does he realise, the girl he left behind has used her father’s influence and her father has other plans for Sam.

To find out more buy the book from local bookshops RRP£9.99.