The winter ledger

Here it is: **THE WINTER LEDGER** *A Thames Barn Novel* by Edward Branco Ten positions. Ten days. And a forest that is listening. Thames Barn's new mission takes him from London to Munich, across to Busan in Korea, and through the dark pine expanse of the Blackwood Forest — to a city that does not want him. Around the industrial city of Novokamensk, ten hidden military positions must be found, mapped, and reported. Barn and his co-director Trippany Sloane travel by jet, by hypercar, and by seaplane to get there — and what they find is worse than installations. Behind the wire at the tenth position stands the Lesnoy detention compound — and inside it, American and British prisoners. Barn does not leave men behind. The breakout, and the seaplane escape from a forest canal where the plane has been hidden under brush and trees, become the most dangerous hours of his life. Then: into Ukraine, where Barn briefs the president on everything he found; back through Germany to England; and on to the United States, where a stolen crate of guidance chips and a missing shipment of night-vision components turn out to be the work of the Breakwater Group — a syndicate smuggling stolen defense technology through little American port towns disguised as fishing freight. Barn takes it apart, piece by piece. The sixth Thames Barn novel is the biggest yet: a seaplane hidden in a forest canal, a prison breakout behind enemy wire, a briefing at the highest level, and a criminal syndicate brought down on the American coast. Exotic cars, beautiful aircraft, and a gentleman operative who never raises his voice — and never misses. But when Trippany cross-references the recon film, she finds an eleventh position. It was on no map. It was never briefed. And it has just gone dark. The game continues.