Maskirovka

A disgraced British officer. A fake invasion. A new identity he starts to enjoy. When Captain Edward van der Velde deploys his platoon without orders to stop what he believes is a Russian invasion, he faces court martial and ruin. Given one last chance to redeem himself, he vanishes into British Intelligence under a new identity, Dimitri Meinditski, nephew of a wealthy Russian oligarch with an estate on the Suffolk coast. Life as Dimitri is better than anything Edward had as himself, until two plots collide around him. One is a coup aimed at Putin himself, on a yacht bound for the Black Sea. The other is Oleg's new British political movement, StepUp, with its sights set on Number 10. As Edward loses track of which side he is actually on, one question keeps returning. When reality itself can be staged, who is left to trust? Darkly witty and unnervingly plausible, Maskirovka is a debut political thriller for readers who like their espionage with a wink.