Description

A riveting Cold War thriller for fans of Top Gun and The Hunt for Red October, written by New York Times bestselling author, astronaut, and former pilot Chris Hadfield. 

Israel, October 1973. As the Yom Kippur War flares into life, a state-of-the-art Soviety MiG fighter is racing at breakneck speed over the arid scrublands below. . . and promptly disappears. NASA Flight Controller and former US test pilot Kaz Zemeckis watches the scene from the ground – and is quickly pulled into a dizzying, high-stakes game of spies, lies, and a possible high-level defection that plays out across three continents. 

The prize is beyond value: the secrets of the Soviets' mythical "Foxbat" MiG-25, the fastest, highest-flying fighter plane in the world and the key to Cold War air supremacy. But every defection is double-edged with risk, and Kaz must tread a careful line between trust and suspicion. Ultimately, he must invite the fox into the henhouse – bringing the defector into the heart of the United States' most secret test site – and hope that, with skill and cunning, the game plays out his way. 

For New York Times bestselling author Chris Hadfield's second heart-stopping thriller, we move from space to another rich and exciting part of Chris's own history: his time as a top test pilot in both the US Air Force and the US Navy, and as an RCAF fighter pilot intercepting armed Soviet bombers in North American airspace. Full of insider detail, excitement and political intrigue drawn from real events, The Defector brings us the nerve-shredding rush of aerial combat, as told by one of the world's best fighter pilots. 

What's Inside

Read More Read Less

Praise

Praise for The Apollo Murders

"Commander Hadfield takes us on an exciting journey into an alternate past. And who better to write about astronauts than an astronaut himself!"—Andy Weir, New York Times bestselling author of The Martian and Project Hail Mary

"A Cold War thriller packed with cosmic action… Featuring undercover spies, scheming Russians and psychopathic murderers, sometimes all at once, it teems with authoritative details about what it might be like, for instance, to throw up in space or to grapple with a deadly Soviet astronaut who assaults you during a spacewalk."—The New York Times

“A nail-biting Cold War thriller set against the desperate Apollo mission that never really happened … or did it? It’s a very rare book that combines so many things I love, from taut suspense and highly realistic action, to the golden age of space exploration. I couldn't put it down.”—James Cameron, Academy Award-winning writer and director of Avatar and Titanic

“An explosive thriller by a writer who has actually been to space and back . . . Strap in for the ride!”
Gregg Hurwitz, New York Times bestselling author of the Orphan X novels

"Not to be missed. Even in fiction there is authenticity. It is either there... or it is not. With Chris Hadfield it is, because everything he describes he has really seen."—Frederick Forsyth, New York Times bestselling author of The Day of the Jackal and The Fox

Read More Read Less