Senate Square, 6pm

Introducing Poland’s John le Carré: former spy and bestselling author Vincent V. Severski. Martin, a former British spy, enjoys a quiet retirement in the Scandinavian wilderness, far from Vauxhall Cross. But his peace is shattered when an active MI6 officer arrives with a macabre photograph and a question. A severed hand bearing a cryptic Cyrillic tattoo has been found in the shipyards of Britain’s new nuclear submarines. What does it mean? The question drags Martin back thirty years to Helsinki, when, as the Soviet Union finally began to crumble, he was sent on a desperate mission to find out the truth behind an alarming provocation, deep beneath the Atlantic’s waves… He was thrown into a shadowy duel between KGB spymasters, MI6 handlers and Finnish counterintelligence, as an old world was giving way to the new, and the global order hung in the balance. But are the ghosts of a long-ago mission being disturbed? Or is he just an old spook jumping at shadows? Sweeping from snow-bound Scandinavian wilderness to tense Cold War safehouses, this is an authentic, cerebral and compelling espionage epic. Vincent V. Severski is a retired intelligence officer with the rank of colonel and a former Director of Poland’s Foreign Intelligence Agency. He is the bestselling author of several critically acclaimed spy novels, with over 1 million copies sold in Poland alone. Severski spent 13 years abroad, taking part in more than 140 missions across 50 countries, including regions in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. © 2027 Vincent V. Severski (P) 2027 DK Audio