The Sandpit

(Paperback)

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A sophisticated thriller about a missing nuclear scientist - perfect for fans of Robert Harris, William Boyd and Charles Cumming 'A remarkable contemporary thriller... A triumph' WILLIAM BOYD A journalist becomes embroiled in a world of secrets and paranoia when a nuclear scientist goes missing. When John Dyer returns to Oxford from Brazil with his young son, Leandro, he expects a quiet life. His time living on the edge as a foreign correspondent is over. But these rainy streets turn out to be just as treacherous as those he used to walk in Rio. Leandro's schoolmates are the children of powerful people, and a chance conversation with another father, Iranian scientist Rustum Marvar, sets Dyer onto a truly dangerous path. Then Marvar disappears. Soon, sinister factions are circling, and become acutely interested in what Dyer knows about Marvar's world-changing discovery... 'An absorbing thriller with shades of John le Carre' Evening Standard 'Exciting... A page-turner' Daily Telegraph

Reviews

A joy to read, the novel reflects John le Carr's genre-stretching influence on every page: the boys' school setting, the mixture of social comedy and Hitchcockian shenanigans, the astute, sophisticated prose, the central philosophical dilemma, and the exploration of what it means to be English in a globalised world. * Sunday Times *
Wonderfully well written...old school in the best possible way, with an insidious escalation of menace, and paranoia that fairly shimmers off the pages * Guardian *
A remarkable contemporary thriller with shades of Graham Greene and Le Carr about it but also a profound and compelling investigation of a hugely complex human predicament. Brilliantly observed, captivatingly written, grippingly narrated a triumph * William Boyd *
The best evocation of Oxford since Brideshead -- Allan Massie
A grimly absorbing literary thriller with shades of John le Carre... opens a window onto the murky world of international nuclear policy and espionage amorality * Evening Standard *

Author Bio

Nicholas Shakespeare was born in 1957. The son of a diplomat, much of his youth was spent in the Far East and South America. His books have been translated into twenty-two languages. They include The Vision of Elena Silves (winner of the Somerset Maugham Award), Snowleg, The Dancer Upstairs, Inheritance, Priscilla and Six Minutes in May. He has been longlisted for the Booker Prize twice and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.