Aiken In Check

"Freighted with moral, philosophical weight, Aiken in Check pits the restless, free-associating mind of its CIA narrator, Russell Aiken, against the Agency itself in this epic climax of the Spy Game Trilogy that thrills as it digs deep." EDITOR'S PICK Publisher's Weekly

"Brilliantly executed...these are first-class spy novels with a smart, gritty atmosphere." - CHARLES CUMMING, New York Times & Sunday Times Best-selling Author of KENNEDY 35 and BOX 88

Gladys: Feeling a little paranoid on our last day?

Nathan Muir: When did Noah build the ark, Gladys? Before the rain, before the rain.

Love or country? To save one you must sacrifice the other... The epic climax to the Aiken Trilogy rooted in the Robert Redford/Brad Pitt film Spy Game, it's the question faced by Nathan Muir protégé Russell Aiken when he defects to Cuba.

Haunted by the ghosts of past, present, and future spies, Aiken is trapped in a lethal battle with Havana intelligence officers desperate to discover the CIA's top spy hidden inside Fidel Castro's government.

Aiken must betray Nathan Muir and Tom Bishop-exposing CIA operations that link Cuba, China, and Venezuela in a startling conspiracy-in order to rescue the woman he loves...all in a single night without leaving the hotel room of his interrogation.

2023 FINALIST, BEST THRILLER AWARDS "Aiken in Check is one of the year's best spy thrillers." - BestThrillers

"Reading Beckner's Spy Game saga is like seeing Picasso's Guernica for the first time. A Cubist deconstruction of the spy trade coupled with an interior absurdist monologue worthy of Vonnegut." Alex Abella, New York Times Notable Author & Emmy Award-winning journalist

"It's policy versus heart... Will challenge you in ways you haven't been challenged before." TONY SCOTT director of Spy Game

Bursting with Aiken's wit and erstwhile confusion, Aiken in Check is a love letter confession, wrapped in the haunting of three spies' dangerous past, on a mind-bending, time-twisting, betrayal-baiting Christmas Eve that by dawn will see him lose everything or become the grandmaster of the Spy Game.

"A thinking man's thriller... A real adrenaline blast... I loved it!" ROBERT REDFORD, Spy Game

"The moral ambiguities of John le Carré, the technical precision of Tom Clancy, and the violent impact of Robert Ludlum." The US Review of Books

Buy Now and return to the world of Nathan Muir and Tom Bishop, but be warned: in the Spy Game, "It's not how you play the game... It's how the game plays you."