The Jackal's Share

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From the author of An Agent of Deceit: "The best debut spy adventure I've read in a long time" The Times "Morgan Jones does invite comparison with Le Carr ... mesmerizing stuff" Guardian "A surprising plot and deceptively simple prose distinguish Jones' exception thriller" Publishers Weekly When an Iranian billionaire asks Ben Webster to investigate his business affairs - it isn't long before the private spy is convinced that there is something very wrong with his quarry. What is Qazai's real motive for contacting Webster And what - beneath his generous, honourable image - does he have to hide Soon Webster will discover that the billionaire's secret is far bigger and more dangerous than he could have imagined, and that his new enemy will think nothing of destroying him, or his family... In a breathless journey which will take readers from London to Marrakech, from Italy to Dubai, Chris Morgan Jones once again asserts himself as the spy thriller writer for a new generation.

Reviews

The Jackal's Share reunites us with corporate spy Ben Webster from his debut An Agent of Deceit. Morgan Jones does invite comparison with Le Carre, and never more so than in this elegant novel about the dark, amoral charisma of the super-rich in this case Darius Qazai, an Iranian expat who runs an enormous asset-management business and has hired Webster to investigate his own reputation in the runup to its sale. Webster must struggle to remain uncompromised and, later, safe from the forces his mission sets in motion. Murky, mesmerising stuff Guardian
Ambivalent as ever about the ethics of the superrich and his part in solving their problems, Webster proves to be the ethically troubled anti-Bond. A more-than-worthy sequel with deft, complex and believable plotting, tense, gut-wrenching action, and classy literary writing Kirkus Starred Review
Chris Morgan Jones's debut novel, An Agent of Deceit, was rightly praised for continuing the reconfiguration of the spy novel begun by such terrific authors as Charles Cumming after the Berlin Wall came down and east versus west became too simplistic an analysis of world politics. But with The Jackal's Share it becomes clear that, actually, Morgan Jones is writing detective as well as spy fiction. The novel is as much Raymond Chandler as John le Carr; as much The Big Sleep as The Spy Who Came in From the Cold . . . Ben Webster's character has interesting complexities. Like Marlowe, he has his own morality and doesn't much like the wealthy including his own client. But down these moneyed streets a man must go, although, unlike Marlowe, Webster does it with wife and kids in tow . . . Webster's characterisation is strong and carried along in the flow of the plot, which has the broad canvas of a spy novel: Middle Eastern politics are central and there are trips to Lake Como, Dubai and Marrakech. The author is deft with all his characterisations but, in particular, he has created two genuinely chilling antagonists, one whose menace is horribly physical, the other whose seeming omniscience provides the threat. He also has an assured sense of place whether in his foreign locations or moving around London . . . Chris Morgan Jones has more than equalled his powerful debut and in Ben Webster has created a flawed, likable central character. I look forward to getting to know him better Observer
A surprising plot and deceptively simple prose distinguish Joness exceptional thriller, his second after his impressive debut, 2012s An Agent of Deceit Publishers Weekly

Author Bio

For eleven years Chris Morgan Jones worked at the world's largest business intelligence agency. He has advised Middle Eastern governments, Russian oligarchs, New York banks, London hedge funds and African mining companies. An Agent of Deceit, his first novel, garnered fantastic reviews and was longlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger Award. Chris Morgan Jones lives in London.