Tom-Bradby-Promo.jpg

Getting published

Broadcaster and author Tom Bradby on how to finish the first draft of your book

Article20card20-20Secret20Service20extract.png

Extracts

Secret Service by Tom Bradby

Secret Service

The Sunday Times top ten bestseller

A fresh-from-the-headlines thriller soon to be a major TV series starring Gemma Arterton

Now a major TV series starring Gemma Arterton 
 
‘A cracking uber-topical spy thriller' Financial Times 
_________ 
 
The world is on the brink of crisis. 
A new Cold War is playing out on the global stage. 
Governments will do whatever it takes to stay at the top... 
 
To those who don't know her, Kate Henderson's life must seem perfectly ordinary. Civil servant, wife, mother. But in reality she is a senior MI6 officer, who right now is holding the political equivalent of a nuclear bomb. 
 
Kate's most recent mission has yielded the startling intelligence that the British Prime Minister has cancer - and that one of the leading candidates to replace him may be a Russian agent of influence. 
 
Up against the clock to uncover the mole, Kate risks everything to uncover the truth. But with her reputation to uphold, her family hanging by a thread and a leadership election looming, she is out of options - and out of time. Will she be able to close the case before it closes her? 
Praise for Secret Service'Enthralling and fast-moving' Daily Mail 
'An excellent thriller straight out of today's headlines... A fast, riveting yarn' Sun 
'Atmospheric and richly entertaining.. Political intrigue of the highest order' Washington Post

Enthralling and fast-moving . . . packed with details of modern tradecraft in the twilight world of spooks, against a background of politics at its most Machiavellian, it is the stuff headlines are made of

Teems with twists and the denouement is imaginative and unexpected

An excellent thriller straight out of today's headlines ... a fast, riveting yarn

A cracking, uber-topical spy thriller …Bradby deftly works in current fears of Moscow infiltrating our institutions amid a plot full of twists and turns

A strong dose of international politics with an all-too-plausible premise

TOM BRADBY is a novelist, screenwriter and journalist. He has written nine previous novels, including top-ten bestselling Secret Service, and its two sequels, Double Agent and Triple Cross. The Master of Rain was shortlisted for the Crime Writers Association Steel Dagger for Thriller of the Year, and both The White Russian and The God of Chaos for the CWA Historical Crime Novel of the Year. He adapted his first novel, Shadow Dancer, into a film, the script for which was nominated for Screenplay of the Year in the Evening Standard Film Awards. 
 
As a broadcaster, he is best known as the current Anchor of ITV's News at Ten. In his first year in the job he was named Network Presenter of the Year by the Royal Television Society. He has been with ITN for thirty years and was successively Ireland Correspondent, Political Correspondent, Asia Correspondent (during which time he was shot and seriously injured whilst Covering a riot in Jakarta), Royal Correspondent, UK Editor and Political Editor- a job he held for a decade - before being made the Anchor of News at Ten in 2015.

'A gripping thriller' Sunday Times 
'Imaginative and unexpected' The Times 
'A cracking, uber-topical spy thriller' Financial Times 
'Enthralling and fast-moving... the stuff headlines are made of' Daily Mail 
_______________________________ 
 
The world is on the brink of crisis. 
The Cold War is playing out once more on the global stage. 
The Worlds' governments will do whatever it takes to stay at the top... 
 
To those who don't really know her, Kate Henderson's life must seem perfectly ordinary. But she is in fact a senior MI6 officer, who right now is nursing the political equivalent of a nuclear bomb. 
 
Kate's most recent mission has yielded the startling intelligence that the British Prime Minister has cancer - and that one of the leading candidates to replace him may be a Russian agent of influence. 
 
Up against the clock to uncover the Russian mole, Kate risks everything to get to the truth. But with her reputation to uphold, her family hanging by a thread and a leadership election looming, she is quickly running out of options, and out of time. 
 
The next two thrilling instalments in the Kate Henderson series, DOUBLE AGENT and TRIPLE CROSS, are available now.

The fast-paced new suspense thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Secret Service

Yesterday's Spy

'Atmospheric, informative and flawlessly plotted' The Sunday Times 
'Riveting...with style and energy, evocative scene-setting and strong characterisation' Financial Times 
_____________________________ 
 
A man in search of his son. 
An agent on the run from his past. 
A country on the verge of revolution... 
 
Nothing good ever comes from a midnight phone call, especially from Downing Street. For washed-up spy Harry Tower, it is the worst news at the worst possible time. His son, Sean, has gone missing in troubled Iran after writing an exposé about government corruption. 
 
Their relationship has never recovered since Harry's wife's suicide, for which Sean holds his father responsible. And Harry, with his career on the verge of disintegration, needs to find him and put things right. 
 
When Harry arrives in Tehran, he finds a city on the cusp of revolution. Foreign powers are jockeying for influence, money and, most importantly, oil. The CIA are conspiring to undermine the government with an impending coup, and there are dark mutterings about opium smuggling. But the reasons for Sean's disappearance may be even more sinister than Harry first suspected. 
 
Before long, he is on the run - not only from a faceless enemy, but from his own past. Which will catch up with him first? 
 
Yesterday's Spy is Tom Bradby at his very best, delivering a cunning espionage novel rich in intrigue and history that will keep you guessing until the final pages. 
_____________________________ 
 
Readers are loving Yesterday's Spy 
 
'His telling of fiction is as good as his telling of the news on TV!' ***** 
'A very enjoyable book and a real page turner' ***** 
'Writing that seems not just plausible but frighteningly real' ***** 
_____________________________ 
 
Praise for Tom Bradby 
 
'A gripping thriller' Sunday Times 
'Enthralling and fast-moving' Daily Mail 
'Teems with twists...imaginative and unexpected' The Times 
'Cracking' Financial Times 
'An all-too-plausible premise' Observer

Atmospheric, informative and flawlessly plotted

Bradby makes the complicated history and politics of the region admirably clear

Riveting...with style and energy, evocative scene-setting and strong characterisation

'A fascinating and powerful thriller of the highest order'

Nothing good ever comes from a midnight phone call. For washed-up spy Harry Tower, it is the worst news at the worst possible time. His son, Sean, has gone missing in troubled Iran after writing an exposé about government corruption. 
 
Their relationship has never recovered since Harry's wife's suicide, for which Sean holds his father responsible. And Harry, with his career on the verge of disintegration, needs to find him and put things right. 
 
When Harry arrives in Tehran, he finds a city on the cusp of revolution. Foreign powers are jockeying for influence, money and, most importantly, oil. The CIA are conspiring to undermine the government with an impending coup, and there are dark mutterings about opium smuggling. But the reasons for Sean's disappearance may be even more sinister than Harry first suspected. 
 
Before long, he is on the run - not only from a faceless enemy, but from his own past. Which will catch up with him first? 
 
Yesterday's Spy is Tom Bradby at his very best, delivering a cunning espionage novel rich in intrigue and history that will keep you guessing until the final pages.

The unputdownable, race-against-time thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Secret Service

Triple Cross

From the ITV News at Ten Anchor 
'Bradby has the talent of a reporter but the heart of a storyteller' Daily Mail 
___________________________ 
 
Attempting to rebuild her shattered life in the South of France, former MI6 operative Kate Henderson receives an unexpected and most unwelcome visit from an old adversary: the UK Prime Minister. He has an extraordinary story to tell - and he needs her help. 
 
A Russian agent has come forward with news that the PM has been the victim of the greatest misinformation play in the history of MI6. It's run out of a special KGB unit that exists for one purpose alone: to process the intelligence from 'Agent Dante', a mole right at the heart of MI6 in London. 
 
Against her better judgement, Kate is forced back into the fray in a top-secret, deeply flawed and dangerous investigation. But now she's damaged goods. Her one-time allies no longer trust her. And neither do her enemies. 
 
With the stakes this high, can the truth ever come out? Or is the cost of uncovering it a price that no one, least of all Kate, can afford to pay? 
 
With a bonus extract of Tom Bradby's latest book, Yesterday's Spy 
___________________________ 
 
Praise for the Tom Bradby: 
 
'Cracking' Financial Times 
'A gripping thriller' Sunday Times 
'An all-too-plausible premise' Observer 
'Enthralling and fast-moving' Daily Mail 
'Teems with twists ... imaginative and unexpected' The Times

Tom Bradby knows how to write a thriller...the best of the series so far

The plot twists and turns with vigour ... the climax is nail-biting

Bradby's blend of le Carre espionage yarn with Michael Dobbs political thriller is a nifty and appealing concoction

An exciting read that has you guessing all the way through

'Bradby has the talent of a reporter but the heart of a storyteller' Daily Mail 
 
Attempting to rebuild her shattered life in the South of France, former MI6 operative Kate Henderson receives an unexpected and most unwelcome visit from an old adversary: the UK Prime Minister. He has an extraordinary story to tell - and he needs her help. 
 
A Russian agent has come forward with news that the PM has been the victim of the greatest misinformation play in the history of MI6. It's run out of a special KGB unit that exists for one purpose alone: to process the intelligence from 'Agent Dante', a mole right at the heart of MI6 in London. 
 
Against her better judgement, Kate is forced back into the fray in a top-secret, deeply flawed and dangerous investigation. But now she's damaged goods. Her one-time allies no longer trust her. And neither do her enemies. 
 
With the stakes this high, can the truth ever come out? Or is the cost of uncovering it a price that no one, least of all Kate, can afford to pay?

From the bestselling author of Secret Service

Double Agent

From author and ITV News Anchor Tom Bradby, comes the sequel to Sunday Times bestseller and bestselling Action Thriller book of 2019, Secret Service

'A high-paced thriller' Radio Times 
 
It was supposed to be a quiet family weekend away. But for Senior MI6 officer Kate Henderson, nothing is ever that simple... 
 
Kidnapped in Venice by a Russian defector, Kate knows she's in trouble. But all is not as it seems. The spy offers her conclusive evidence that the British Prime Minister is a live agent working for Moscow. Kate's holiday quickly becomes the start of her next mission. 
 
With proof of the PM involved in a sordid scandal and a financial paper trail that undeniably links him to the Russians, the evidence seems bulletproof. But the motives of the defector are anything but clear. And, more worryingly, it seems that there are key people at the heart of the British Establishment who refuse to acknowledge the reality in front of them. 
 
Kate can trust no one, and this mission will push her dangerously close to the edge... but is that the price to pay for the truth? 
 
Readers are gripped by Double Agent: 
 
***** 'Couldn't put it down. A thrilling tale.' 
***** 'Loved everything about this book, especially the lead character.' 
***** 'A page turning and addictive read!' 
 
BOOK 3: Triple Cross is out in hardback on 13 May 2021

An enjoyably labyrinthine tale with a light touch and the odd naughty satirical echo

Bradby's portrayal of squabbling Whitehall folk continues to be intriguing and distinctive (and piquantly naughty, coming as it does from ITV's chief anchorman).

Kidnapped in Venice by a Russian defector, Kate knows she's in trouble. But the spy offers her conclusive evidence that the British PM is a live agent working for Moscow. Kate's holiday quickly becomes the start of her next mission. 
 
With proof of the PM involved in a sordid scandal and a financial paper trail that undeniably links him to the Russians, the evidence seems bulletproof. But it seems that there are key people at the heart of the British Establishment who refuse to acknowledge the reality in front of them.

Shadow Dancer

A knife-edge thriller - now a major film starring Clive Owen, Andrea Riseborough and Gillian Anderson.

Quite exceptional...a taut, compelling story of love and torn loyalties

A remarkable first novel...Bradby handles the tension with skill to produce a gripping tale

The best book on the northern conflict since Harry's Game...An excellent read on any level

Colette McVeigh: Mother. Widow. Terrorist. For all of her twenty-nine years she has lived the Republican cause. Her husband was killed by the Brits. Her brothers have dedicated their lives to fighting them. 
 
Until she is arrested in an aborted bombing raid in London when she has to make a choice: inform and see your children again; or stay silent and watch them grow up from the inside of a prison cell. 
 
Her MI5 handler, David Ryan, has never questioned where his loyalties lie. But as he watches Colette put herself in increasing danger to fulfil her side of the bargain, he realises that his certainty and integrity have been fatally and irrevocably compromised...

The God Of Chaos

The new thriller from the acclaimed author of Shadow Dancer, The Sleep of the Dead, The Master of Rain and The White Russian.

Bradby's best book yet... Enjoyable and atmospheric

Bradby has the talent of a reporter but the heart of a storyteller

The kind of historical fiction that may send you back to the real history books to learn more

Cairo, June 1942. A city blistering under the lash of a relentless summer and panicked by the implacable advance of Hitler's most talented general, Erwin Rommel. It is the worst possible time and place for the body of a senior British officer to be found in a rubbish bin, bathed in blood. 
 
His murder has been made to look like a political assassination by local extremists opposed to British rule, but former New York cop Joe Quinn isn't buying that. He senses more fundamental human emotions at play. For Quinn, it's like old times, a reminder of his past. One he doesn't want to revisit. Thrown out of the New York Police Department as a liability after the tragic death of his son, he probably shouldn't be a cop any longer, but maybe he's just what this case needs. 
 
The investigation leads him through the underbelly of an exotic, violent and seedy city to the heart of the Cairo's high command and the possibility that a highly placed spy is feeding the allies' most sensitive secrets to Rommel, waiting out in the desert. 
 
Only one woman has seen the killer - an American named Amy White. The trouble is Joe Quinn's already falling for her and if he doesn't stop the spy soon, then not just Amy, but everything else he holds dear is certain to be brutally eliminated ...

The Master Of Rain

A brilliant historical thriller - LA CONFIDENTIAL meets WHITE MISCHIEF

'A moody, murder mystery with all the style of a noir classic'

'Nigh on impossible to put down...This intelligent thriller brings Shanghai to life as Gorky Park did for Moscow'

'Rich, dark, atmospheric, this fine novel captures time and place perfectly. A great crime story that ends up in a place you won't predict'

The atmosphere and menace of Twenties Shanghai is brought to vivid life as the backdrop to a gripping tale'

'Master of Rain is that rare thing: a truly epic crime novel, brilliantly researched and superbly executed'

'Does for Shanghai what Raymond Chandler did for Los Angeles - stylish and cool - debauchery at its most elegant'

'Every once in a while a book comes along that combines larger-than-life epic adventure; idiomatic, pungent historical detail and genuine storytelling panache. Tom Bradby's The Master of Rain is such a book, carrying the reader headlong into a breathless tale of double-dealing and murder in 1920s Shanghai...Splendidly evocative writing'

'An immensely atmospheric, gripping detective story with just the right mixture of exoticism, violence and romance'

'Beneath the surface of this clever book, we find a wise, richly layered and utterly convincing portrait of what was the most evil and fatally fascinating of all the modern world's cities. No one has managed to bring Shanghai so alive, in all its ghastly splendour'

'A vividly set and compellingly readable thriller about corruption in all its forms'

Shortlisted for the Crime Writers Association Thriller of the Year 
 
Shanghai, 1926. A city of British Imperial civil servants, American gun-runners, Russian princesses and Chinese gangsters, where heroin is available on room service and everything is for sale. Exotic, sexually liberated and pulsing with life, it is a place and time where anything seems possible. 
 
For Richard Field, it represents a brave new world away from the past he is trying to escape. Seconded to the police force, his first moment of active duty is a brutal crime scene. A young White Russian woman, Lena Orlov, lies spreadeagled on her bed, sadistically murdered. As he begins to peer through the glittering surface to the murky depths beneath, Field sees a world beyond the glamour of the city's expatriate life - a world where everything has its price, and where human life is merely another asset to barter. 
 
The key to the investigation seems to be Lena's neighbour, Natasha Medvedev. But can Field trust someone for whom self-preservation is the only goal? And is it wise to fall in love when there is every sign that Natasha herself may be the next victim? 
 
In a city where reality is a dangerous luxury, Field is driven into the darkness beyond the dazzle of society to a world where the basest of human needs are met and where the truth seems certain to be a fatal commodity . . . 
____________________ 
 
Praise for Tom Bradby: 
 
&lsquo;Quite exceptional&rsquo; Daily Telegraph 
&lsquo;Nigh on impossible to put down&rsquo; Time Out 
&lsquo;Bradby has the talent of a reporter but the heart of a storyteller&rsquo; Daily Mail 
&lsquo;Intrigue of the highest order &hellip; Atmospheric and richly entertaining&rsquo; Washington Post 
&lsquo;This feisty, pacey thriller by TV news reporter turned writer Tom Bradby has it all&rsquo; Press Association

Blood Money

A stunning thriller set during the Wall Street Crash of 1929 from ITN's political correspondent and acclaimed author Tom Bradby.

The smoky romantic notion of speakeasies and Irish beat cops...is captured beautifully by Bradby's love of minute detail.

This feisty, pacey thriller by TV news reporter turned writer Tom Bradby has it all - nervy gangsters, crooked politicians, gutsy cops and a sexy moll. It is also blessed with excellent timing....A top-notch piece of crime writing

Compulsively readable...Bradby makes the most of his exotic ingredients to create a story rich in atmosphere and steeped in intrigue

This story of murder stalking a group of bankers during the Wall Street Crash of 1929 couldn't be more topical

New York, 1929, a city of speakeasies, swells and hoodlums at the fag end of the roaring twenties. It's a hell of a time and place for a young cop to be trying to make his way in the world. 
 
Joe Quinn's first case is one that could put his name up in lights; a banker takes a dive from a tall building onto Wall Street. All the signs point to murder. Pretty soon, the dead man has company; a group of old buddies is being eliminated, in a particularly gruesome manner. 
 
For the young detective a case that starts as an opportunity swiftly becomes a nightmare from which he cannot escape. Joe Quinn is about to discover just how tough being an honest cop in a dishonest world can be...

The White Russian

The new thriller from the acclaimed author of Shadow Dancer, The Sleep of the Dead and The Master of Rain.

'Unfailingly evocative...Reminiscent of Gorky Park'

'Intrigue of the highest order...sad, atmospheric and richly entertaining'

St Petersburg 1917. The capital of the glittering Empire of the Tsars and a city on the brink of revolution where the jackals of the Secret Police intrigue for their own survival as their aristocratic masters indulge in one last, desperate round of hedonism. 
For Sandro Ruzsky, Chief Investigator of the city police, even this decaying world provides the opportunity for a new beginning. Banished to Siberia for four years for pursuing a case his superiors would rather he'd quietly buried, Ruzsky finds himself investigating the murders of a young couple out on the ice of the frozen river Neva. 
The dead girl was a nanny at the Imperial Palace, the man an American from Chicago and, if the brutality of their deaths seems an allegory for the times, Ruzsky finds that, at every turn, the investigation leads dangerously close to home. At the heart of the case, lies Maria, the beautiful ballerina Ruzsky once loved and lost. But is she a willing participant in what appears to be a dangerous conspiracy or likely to be it's next, perhaps last, victim? 
In a city at war with itself, and pitted against a ruthless murderer who relishes taunting him, Ruzsky finds himself at last face to face with his own past as he fights to save everything he cares for, before the world into which he was born goes up in flames.

The Sleep Of The Dead

The brilliant new thriller from the acclaimed author of Shadow Dancer.

'Intriguing and emotive, this is a slow builder that proves to be well worth the wait'

'Elegant, spooky and a compulsive page turner'

'A race-against-the-clock thriller and a complex psychological drama'

'Torn apart by loyalties and suspicion, the tension gradually mounts as the pieces of the jigsaw finally fit together into a gripping psychological drama'

'Lives up to the promise of its remarkable predecessor, Shadow Dancer...confirms Bradby's considerable promise as a a thriller writer'

The brutal murder of Sarah Ford and the disappearance of her six-year-old daughter, Alice, shattered the rural serenity of Julia Havilland's childhood. But these are not the only scars that have resolutely refused to heal. Shortly afterwards, Colonel Mitchell Havilland sacrificed himself on a Falklands hillside in an act of characteristic - but baffling - heroism. When Julia comes home from China fifteen years later, it is to a place of ghosts. 
 
Whilst she awaits the outcome of the enquiry that seems destined to end her short but spectacular career in military intelligence, Julia is drawn back across the landscape of the past, to find that it is not just the tortured image of her much-loved father that returns to haunt her. Everything she has ever believed in and lived for has suddenly been called into question, and unless she confronts her demons, she will not survive. For there have been other deaths, and the dead will not sleep... 
 
At once a race-against-the-clock thriller and a complex psychological drama where the memories of the past conflict with knowledge of the present, The Sleep of the Dead is a stunning read on any level and more than confirms Tom Bradby as one of this country's foremost thriller writers. 
 
Praise for Shadow Dancer: 
 
'Quite exceptional...Tom Bradby succeeds in creating real characters. Far too many novels take refuge in cliché and caricature - Bradby refuses to. The language, the tension, the fear - all are portrayed vividly and correctly...A taut, compelling story of love and torn loyalties' 
Daily Telegraph 
 
'A remarkable first novel...Bradby handles the tension with skill to produce a gripping tale' 
The Times 
 
'The best book on the northern conflict since Harry's Game...An excellent read on any level. It scores heavily as a thriller and as an accurate unblinking look at what is happening right now' 
Irish Independent

Tom Bradby

Atmospheric, informative and flawlessly plotted.

Bradby has the talent of a reporter but the heart of a storyteller.

Quite exceptional...Tom Bradby succeeds in creating real characters. Far too many novels take refuge in cliché and caricature - Bradby refuses to.

Life for Dr Laura Strong shouldn’t be this hard. Nights working thankless A&E shifts. A much-loved disabled brother to look after. Loan sharks at her door. She needs a miracle to stop her life collapsing around her. 
 
The arrival of South American coffee magnate Rafael Fernandez appears to be the answer to her prayers. A devoted father with a sick son requiring a 24/7 care, he is prepared to pay any price for expertise he can trust. 
 
But if something appears to be too good to be true, then it probably is. Behind the façade of Rafa’s gilded existence lies a dark family history which he has been doing his best to avoid – until the death of his estranged father brings it crashing back into his – and Laura’s – world. 
 
What had at first seemed to be a remarkable escape from an impossible situation now threatens to destroy everything Laura cares about. Friendless and far from home, she must rely on her own instincts to find a way out of this terrifying new landscape. Sometimes it’s easier to trust the devil you know…

Tom Bradby

Praise for Red Scorpion

Praise for Tom Bradby

Atmospheric, informative and flawlessly plotted.

Bradby has the talent of a reporter but the heart of a storyteller.

Praise for Tom Bradby

Atmospheric, informative and flawlessly plotted.

Bradby has the talent of a reporter but the heart of a storyteller.

Praise for Tom Bradby

Atmospheric, informative and flawlessly plotted.

Bradby has the talent of a reporter but the heart of a storyteller.

Books by Tom Bradby

Articles featuring Tom Bradby

Broadcaster and author Tom Bradby on how to finish the first draft of your book

Secret Service by Tom Bradby

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter