The Insider

Ambition. Greed. Blackmail. Murder. All before the opening bell. Hungry to play in the big leagues, Jay West lands a coveted position with a powerful Wall Street investment firm, working as the handpicked prot g of the successful, charismatic Oliver Mason. But Jay soon suspects that Oliver's stellar track record is more than a result of hard work or good luck. The man seems to have everything--including a violent temper and a boundless desire for money and prestige. Then a trusted coworker is brutally murdered. With a conspiracy of deceit and corruption closing around him, Jay races to untangle the sordid lies that have quickly and too conveniently blackened his name. Trusting no one, Jay must rely on his own cunning and wits to stay in the game--and to stay alive.

Ambition. Greed. Blackmail. Murder. All before the opening bell. Hungry to play in the big leagues, Jay West lands a coveted position with a powerful Wall Street investment firm, working as the handpicked prot g of the successful, charismatic Oliver Mason. But Jay soon suspects that Oliver's stellar track record is more than a result of hard work or good luck. The man seems to have everything--including a violent temper and a boundless desire for money and prestige. Then a trusted coworker is brutally murdered. With a conspiracy of deceit and corruption closing around him, Jay races to untangle the sordid lies that have quickly and too conveniently blackened his name. Trusting no one, Jay must rely on his own cunning and wits to stay in the game--and to stay alive.

The thrilling novel of espionage and murder set in the dark heart of Westminster, from the UK's most exciting new spy writer A Russian defector is found brutally murdered in a London hotel. Only four people knew he had turned - the four most important and powerful figures in Whitehall. There's only one conclusion: A mole has infiltrated the highest levels of the nation's security. Operating in secret from within Westminster's darkest corners, former spy, Solomon Vine, must uncover the traitor. Because Britain's future hangs in the balance. And with it, the fate of the whole world . . . Praise for Matthew Richardson 'Proof that the spy genre is flourishing in the 21st century . . . [Richardson's] plotting has an old-school, Swiss-clock precision' The Guardian 'Compelling, intense and sharply authentic' James Swallow, bestselling author of Nomad 'A splendid tale of espionage starring an old-fashioned MI6 hero . . . Exciting spy literature' The Times 'A bang-up-to-date thriller told with old-school panache. A great read' Mick Herron, CWA Gold Dagger-winning author of the Slough House Series

The thrilling novel of espionage and murder set in the dark heart of Westminster, from the UK's most exciting new spy writer A Russian defector is found brutally murdered in a London hotel. Only four people knew he had turned - the four most important and powerful figures in Whitehall. There's only one conclusion: A mole has infiltrated the highest levels of the nation's security. Operating in secret from within Westminster's darkest corners, former spy, Solomon Vine, must uncover the traitor. Because Britain's future hangs in the balance. And with it, the fate of the whole world . . . Praise for Matthew Richardson 'Proof that the spy genre is flourishing in the 21st century . . . [Richardson's] plotting has an old-school, Swiss-clock precision' The Guardian 'Compelling, intense and sharply authentic' James Swallow, bestselling author of Nomad 'A splendid tale of espionage starring an old-fashioned MI6 hero . . . Exciting spy literature' The Times 'A bang-up-to-date thriller told with old-school panache. A great read' Mick Herron, CWA Gold Dagger-winning author of the Slough House Series

A finalist for the 2026 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction A delightful and majestic reckoning with the ascent of American fiction in the twentieth century through the prism of the under-known man who had an astonishing amount to do with it Malcolm Cowley is not a household name today, but the American literary canon would look very different without him. A prototypical "man of letters" of his generation--Harvard University, a volunteer in the French ambulance corps in World War I, a rite of passage in Paris after the war--he became one of the few truly influential critics of the 1920s and '30s, along with his close New Republic colleague Edmund Wilson. Cowley's early support of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and their set--and indeed for framing this group in generational terms in the first place--secured his place in literary history. Most people are lucky to be part of a single game-changing era in their careers; for Cowley, it happened again and again. After emerging from the political fray of the thirties badly damaged, he retreated behind the scenes as a tastemaker whose import has awaited Gerald Howard to be brought into full view. The process of canon formation is a murky business, and Cowley was a prime mover in it for the better part of four decades, through the Lost Generation, the Beat Generation, and the counterculture of the sixties. Without him, the odds would be much longer that the names William Faulkner, Jack Kerouac, and Ken Kesey, to name just three, would have ever echoed. In The Insider , Gerald Howard gives an intimate accounting of the fever graph of a fascinating and multifaceted career in the literary trade that uses that career to tell a much bigger story of how American literature took the course that it did from the 1920s to the 1960s. It's a story of an art form, and an industry, and a country experiencing wrenching change, and the people who made a home in the storm and in no small part shaped it. Howard's own career as a literary weathermaker is justly acclaimed, and he has brought all his talents of head and heart to bear in crafting this extraordinary book. It's a gift to booklovers and a major contribution to the cultural history of this country.

A finalist for the 2026 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction A delightful and majestic reckoning with the ascent of American fiction in the twentieth century through the prism of the under-known man who had an astonishing amount to do with it Malcolm Cowley is not a household name today, but the American literary canon would look very different without him. A prototypical "man of letters" of his generation--Harvard University, a volunteer in the French ambulance corps in World War I, a rite of passage in Paris after the war--he became one of the few truly influential critics of the 1920s and '30s, along with his close New Republic colleague Edmund Wilson. Cowley's early support of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and their set--and indeed for framing this group in generational terms in the first place--secured his place in literary history. Most people are lucky to be part of a single game-changing era in their careers; for Cowley, it happened again and again. After emerging from the political fray of the thirties badly damaged, he retreated behind the scenes as a tastemaker whose import has awaited Gerald Howard to be brought into full view. The process of canon formation is a murky business, and Cowley was a prime mover in it for the better part of four decades, through the Lost Generation, the Beat Generation, and the counterculture of the sixties. Without him, the odds would be much longer that the names William Faulkner, Jack Kerouac, and Ken Kesey, to name just three, would have ever echoed. In The Insider , Gerald Howard gives an intimate accounting of the fever graph of a fascinating and multifaceted career in the literary trade that uses that career to tell a much bigger story of how American literature took the course that it did from the 1920s to the 1960s. It's a story of an art form, and an industry, and a country experiencing wrenching change, and the people who made a home in the storm and in no small part shaped it. Howard's own career as a literary weathermaker is justly acclaimed, and he has brought all his talents of head and heart to bear in crafting this extraordinary book. It's a gift to booklovers and a major contribution to the cultural history of this country.