Deep Shelter

July 14, 2014
In Harris’s heart-pounding second outing for Det. Constable Nick Belsey (after 2012’s Hollow Man), an unsuccessful manhunt leads Belsey to the entrance of a disused underground bunker in London’s Belsize Park. Upon discovering a cache of champagne and pharmaceuticals in this Cold War–era bomb shelter, Belsey decides to impress his art-student girlfriend, Jemma Stevens, by taking her there. During the underground tour, Jemma vanishes. Belsey, who fears that he’ll be the prime suspect in her disappearance, soon starts receiving taunting messages from Jemma’s kidnapper, who has taken the name of a notorious Soviet spy, Ferryman. Belsey must discover Ferryman’s identity, uncover the secrets of a vast network of shelters underneath London, and avoid capture both by the city’s police force and U.K.security services. His frenetic quest to save Jemma and clear his name will keep readers turning the pages. Agent: George Lucas, Inkwell Management.

September 1, 2014
Bent London copper Nick Belsey can move through the city's dark side because that's where he lives. He steals from corpses, drinks himself insensible in public, and puts the moves on a girl he's just arrested for possession. His first appearance, in Harris' The Hollow Man (2012), saw him clashing with fellow crooks. Here he lands in the world of spies and spying, with ambiguous results. A suspect Belsey is chasing on foot turns a corner and . . . disappears. Belsey persists and discovers a complex system of tunnels under the city, meant to be a refuge during nuclear war. Shadowy forces warn him against investigating, and we wonder: Why this secrecy? The answer comes 300 pages later, after we've followed Belsey through a psychiatrist's office, a Philby-like cabal, a safe house, and too much more. Finally, we want less story and more Belsey because, like Holmes and Bond, he's more interesting than the mystery he gets entangled in. We want to know this outlandish man, see him as more than a plot device in his own novel, but there's just enough of him here to keep us reading.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)