Owen Matthews

5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . Eric Connelly is crumbling under the weight of his dad’s expectations. He can’t seem to live up to the “Connelly Man” standards—but when he meets the mysterious, free-spirited Jordan Grant, his dad’s rules seem so much less important than they used to. Jordan and Eric—now “E”—join up with two of the most popular girls in school to combat their rich-kid boredom. But as Jordan seduces E further, the group starts to kill time in more nefarious ways. It’s Jordan who escalates the pack’s dares from mostly harmless jaunts like joyrides in boosted cars and Bling Ring–style luxury shoplifting sprees into more violent activities. Eric is intoxicated . . . swept up in the pack’s activities, even as Paige and Haley start to have reservations about what they’ve been doing. When Jordan starts talking bigger—what’s a little bomb building between friends?—E must decide if he’s just too far down the rabbit hole to back out. From the author of How to Win at High School comes a wicked, irreverent story of rich kids gone amok that will leave readers at the edge of their seats.

A Novel

The Fixes

"A chilling and cinematic thriller set in 1961 in one of the most secretive locations in Soviet history. Ten days before the test of largest nuclear device in history--the Tsar Bomba--a KGB officer must investigate the murder of one of the architects of the bomb, and unravel a conspiracy that could set the world on fire"--

Black Sun

The thrilling true story of Richard Sorge-the Soviet intelligence operative John le Carré called “the spy to end spies.” Richard Sorge moved in a world of shifting alliances and infinite possibility. Born to a German mother and a Russian father, Sorge became a fanatical communist-and the Soviet Union's most formidable spy. Like many great spies, Sorge was an effortless seducer, combining charm with a ruthless manipulation. He did not have to go snooping to find out closely guarded state secrets-his victims willingly shared them. Hiding in plain sight as a foreign correspondent, he infiltrated and influenced the highest echelons of German, Chinese, and Japanese society in the years leading up to and including World War II. His intelligence proved pivotal to the Soviet counteroffensive in the Battle of Moscow, which determined the outcome of the war. Owen Matthews, author of Stalin's Children, captures the sweep of history and draws on a wealth of declassified Soviet documents and testimonials to tell the riveting story of the man Ian Fleming described as “the most formidable spy in history.”

Richard Sorge, Stalin’s Master Agent

An Impeccable Spy

Adam Higgs is a loser, and he's not okay with it. But starting as a junior in a new high school seems like exactly the right time to change things. He brainstorms with his best friend, Brian: What will it take for him to take over Nixon Collegiate? Adam searches for the A-listers' weak spot and strikes gold when he gets queen bee Sara Bryant to pay him for doing her physics homework. One part nerd, two parts badass, Adam ditches his legit job and turns to full-time cheating. His clients? All the Nixon Collegiate gods and goddesses. But soon his homework business becomes a booze business, which becomes a fake ID business. Adam's popularity soars as he unlocks high school achievements left and right, from his first kiss to his first rebound hookup. But something else is haunting him—a dark memory from his past, driving him to keep climbing. What is it? And will he go too far? How to Win at High School's honest picture of high school hierarchy combines with an over-the-top, adrenaline-charged story line, and Adam's rocket ride to the top of the social order (and his subsequent flameout) is by turns bawdy and sweetly emotional.

How to Win at High School

The Inside Story of Putin's War Against Ukraine

Overreach

Three Generations of Love, War, and Survival

Stalin's Children

An unprecedented insight into the grim brutality of the Russian revolution and the terror of the Cold War

Three Generations of Love and Betrayal

An electrifying new thriller set during the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, seen from a bone-chilling vantage point: somewhere off the Florida coastline, trapped aboard the claustrophobic confines of an isolated Soviet submarine with open orders to fire its nuclear payload. The year is 1962, and KGB Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vasin is chasing a white elephant: the long-rumored existence of an American spy embedded at the highest echelon of Soviet power. In a wild-goose chase that has Vasin engaged in high-stakes espionage against a rival State agency, he first hears whispers of an ominous top-secret undertaking: Operation Anadyr. As tensions flare between Nikita Khrushchev and President Kennedy over Russian missiles hidden in Cuba, four Soviet submarines are ordered to make a covert run at the American blockade in the Caribbean--each sub carrying tactical ballistic missiles armed with thermonuclear warheads. Critically acclaimed novelist Owen Matthews has crafted an incredibly taut thriller around one of the most treacherous moments in modern history, where the fate of the world rested on the itchy trigger finger of one lone Soviet naval officer, 100-meters under the sea, out of all contact with his commanders.

Red Traitor

The new novel from a master of the Cold War thriller . . . 'This is Robert Harris storytelling territory' Daily Mail 'Outstanding' Sunday Times 'Tense, exciting and authentic' Charles Cumming, author of Judas 62 'Stunning' The Times 'Brilliantly plotted' John Sweeney, author of Killer in the Kremlin 'A standout thriller' Financial Times 1963. In a desolate Russian penal colony, the radio broadcasts news of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy... Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vasin's new posting as director of a gulag camp in the middle of the frozen tundra is far from a promotion. This is where disgraced agents, like Vasin, disappear - sent to die forgotten. And quietly. But tensions in the camp are running high and when a violent revolt breaks out, Vasin finds himself on the run. With him is a mysterious prisoner - who holds the key to the most dangerous secret in the world: who ordered Kennedy's murder. In a breathless race that takes them through the Soviet Union - from the barren Siberian wastelands to the stunning halls of the Katerina Palace and the grey streets of Leningrad and Moscow - Vasin must stay one step ahead of the most ruthless spy and police organizations in the world . . . and keep the most wanted man in Russia alive. It's a journey that will push Vasin's loyalty, morality and his patriotism to the limit. And he must confront the ultimate choice: fall in line, or die fighting the system. With masterful storytelling that weaves together an explosive moment in history with the cutthroat machinations of Soviet politics, Owen Matthews' White Fox captures the paradigm-shifting assassination from a unique Soviet point of view. This is a page-turning thriller - a race against time across Soviet Russia, where the participants face impossible odds and must decide between truth, justice and all-out war.

White Fox

SHORTLISTED FOR THE PUSHKIN HOUSE PRIZE'The most formidable spy in history' IAN FLEMING'His work was impeccable' KIM PHILBY'The spy to end spies' JOHN LE CARRÉBorn of a German father and a Russian mother, Richard Sorge moved in a world of shifting alliances and infinite possibility. In the years leading up to and during the Second World War, he became a fanatical communist - and the Soviet Union's most formidable spy. Combining charm with ruthless manipulation, he infiltrated and influenced the highest echelons of German, Chinese and Japanese society. His intelligence proved pivotal to the Soviet counter-offensive in the Battle of Moscow, which in turn determined the outcome of the war itself. Drawing on a wealth of declassified Soviet archives, this is a major biography of one of the greatest spies who ever lived.

Richard Sorge, Stalin's Master Agent

On a mid-summer day in 1937, a car pulled up to the house of the Bibikov family in Chernigov in the heart of the Ukraine. Boris, the father, kissed his two daughters and wife goodbye and disappeared inside the car. His family never saw him again. His wife would later vanish, leaving the young Lyudmila and Lenina alone to drift across the vast Russian landscape as the Wehrmacht advanced in WWII. In the early 1960s Owen Matthews' father, Mervyn, moved to Moscow to work for the British embassy after a childhood in Wales dreaming of Russia. He fell in with the KGB, and in love with Lyudmila, and before he could disentangle himself from the former he was ordered to leave the country. For the next six years, Mervyn tried desperately to get Lyudmila out of Russia, and when he finally succeeded they married. Decades on from these events, their son, now Newsweek's bureau chief in Moscow, pieces together the tangled threads of his family's past and present-the extraordinary files that record the life and death of his grandfather at the hands of Stalin's secret police; his mother's and aunt's perilous journey to adulthood; his parents' Cold War love affair and the magnet that has drawn him back to the Russia-to present an indelible portrait of the country over the past seven decades and an unforgettable memoir about how we struggle to define ourselves in opposition to our ancestry only to find ourselves aligning with it.

»En oförglömlig läsupplevelse!» Ingalill Mosander i SVT, Gokväll 1937 arresteras den unge partimannen Boris Bibikov av Stalins hemliga polis. Hans familj ser honom aldrig igen. Hustrun skickas iväg till Gulag och de två döttrarna lämnas ensamma. Mirakulöst nog överlever flickorna krigets fasor. I början av 1960-talet förälskar sig den ena av dem, Ljudmila, i en brittisk ambassadtjänsteman. På grund av kalla kriget tvingas paret leva åtskilda, kärleken lever via en intensiv brevväxling men efter sex år kan Ljudmila och Mervyn slutligen återförenas i England. Här föds bokens författare, Owen. Genom att berätta sin egen familjekrönika skildrar Owen Matthews också Sovjetunionens dramatiska 1900-talshistoria. Resultatet har blivit en oavlåtligt fängslande bok. Röster om boken: »An astonishing personal history of love, death and betrayal», Simon Sebag Montefiore »An extraordinary story», Antony Beevor »Gripping – This fascinating book is not a footnote to Soviet history: it is Soviet history, one of the millions of private tales of evil and astonishing endurance that make up the awful hole» Observer »Man upprörs över den kyla, den psykologiska brutalitet som rådde i Sovjet och som knäckte många människor. Det här är en berättelse om människor som aldrig gav upp, men som fick betala ett högt pris för sin kärlek.» Dagbladet »Genom att skildra sin familjs öde, och sin egen resa till Ryssland, ger Matthews en fängslande bild av Sovjetunionen/Ryssland under tre generationer. Han visar oss hur man lever, bor, älskar, vad man längtar efter och tror på.» Bloggen Boktoka

Tre generationer av kärlek och krig

Stalins barn

Owen Matthews, a bilingual twentysomething journalist in Moscow, is the third generation of his family to become enmeshed in the body of Russia. This work presents Owen's tale of decadence in contemporary Moscow, set against the story of his parents' cold war love-affair.

Moscow Babylon

The Russian Empire once extended deep into America: in 1818 Russia's furthest outposts were in California and Hawaii. The dreamer behind this great Imperial vision was Nikolai Rezanov ? diplomat, adventurer, courtier, millionaire and gambler. His quest to plant Russian colonies from Siberia to California led him to San Francisco, where he was captivated by Conchita, the fifteen-year-old daughter of the Spanish Governor, who embodied his dreams of both love and empire. From the glittering court of Catherine the Great to the wilds of the New World, Matthews conjures a brilliantly original portrait of one of Russia's most eccentric Empire-builders.

Nikolai Rezanov and the Dream of a Russian America

Glorious Misadventures

An untold chapter of America's past, a fascinating insight into a centuries-old love story

Owen Matthews

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