Spark

This standout, distinctive novel will shake your perception of what a thriller should be, and what it can do. From the elusive Sunday Times bestselling author John Twelve Hawks, for fans of Scott Mariani, Philip K. Dick and Michael Connolly. 'Breathless action. . . . Twelve Hawks sets up the battles in Spark as more than simple combat. His appeal lies in his pairing of one system of belief against another and letting them duke it out.' - THE NEW YORK TIMES 'Like Philip K Dick's best novels, [Spark] is insidious and troubling, its most profound points made with disarming casualness.' - THE GUARDIAN 'A fantastic blend of action and deeper questions about what it means to be human.' - THE WASHINGTON POST 'Twelve Hawks, like a character in his story, is untethered by technology and unreachable by the tentacles of the Vast Machine. He is a free spirit, a lone voice of reason in a data-fogged world.' - SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE ********************************************************************** JACOB UNDERWOOD IS NOT LIKE OTHER PEOPLE. He has Cotard's Syndrome. He believes he is dead. This makes his job as a hired assassin neutralising 'problems' for DBG, a massive multinational corporation, very simple. He carries out the task - and feels nothing. Now DBG has such a problem. A key employee, Emily Buchanan, has disappeared, taking with her a fortune and priceless information which could destroy the company. Jacob must track her down. In previous assignments, he had worked with cold logical precision, but this time he has to confront a threat that he first must understand before it destroys him... Further praise for SPARK: 'Darkly futuristic . . . with a protagonist unlike any other.' - Austin Chronicle 'An adrenaline-charged thriller- endlessly inventive- that winds through a landscape of cutting-edge technology with great assurance and skill.' - Lincoln Child, New York Times bestselling author of The Third Gate 'Spark is a marvel. An utterly gripping, unbelievably imaginative tale with all the heart, drive, and humanity that its hero, Jacob Underwood, a contract assassin, lacks. . . . At once a heart pounding thriller, a bitter indictment of our growing surveillance state, and a life affirming story of the indomitability of the human heart.' - Christopher Reich, New York Times bestselling author of Rules of Deception 'From start to finish Spark defies expectation, joining a 'dead' man's cold regard with suspense at fever pitch.' - Locus 'As good as the Fourth Realm books were, this one may be even more appealing: less fantastic, more grounded in a contemporary real world, with a narrator who is deeply scarred and endlessly fascinating.' - Booklist (starred review)