Ascension, Oliver Harris
Ascension, Oliver Harris
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Ascension

Author: Oliver Harris

Narrator: James Langton

Unabridged: 10 hr 11 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: William Morrow

Published: 07/13/2021


Synopsis

British spy Elliot Kane is forced out of semi-retirement to investigate a colleague’s suspicious death on Ascension Island, a remote and rocky outpost of the British military in the middle of the Atlantic.Despite foiling a plot to incite a new world war, Elliot Kane has been on probation with MI6 since his rogue misadventures in Kazakhstan. Granted a job teaching literature to college students, he surprisingly enjoys a conventional life away from the intelligence services. Then a former colleague reaches out with a request: one of her tech specialists on a long-term, covert mission has killed himself, and the agency needs to find out why before proceeding with the vital operation. The carrot in this offer is helping his old friend; the stick is more disciplinary action if he doesn’t comply. So Kane takes on deep cover again and heads to one of the most remote places on the planet, Ascension Island. A curious legacy of England’s imperial past, Ascension is a desolate rock made of dead volcanic cones located in the Atlantic Ocean halfway between Brazil and Angola. Only employees and their families are allowed to reside there, and the island contains both British and American military bases. After learning that a teenage girl disappeared on the same night as the technician’s suicide, Kane finds himself with two mysteries to solve. With local tensions running high, he needs to move quickly before suspicion falls on him. Kane soon realizes the island has more secrets than even the government knows, some leading straight to the highest offices in London. 

About Oliver Harris

OLIVER HARRIS was born in London in 1978. He has an MA in Shakespeare studies and a PhD in psychoanalysis. He writes occasionally for the Times Literary Supplement.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Ceecee

Elliot Kane #2 4.5 Elliot is on ‘probation’ following issues with his last operation in Kazakhstan and is teaching at Oxford University. Kathryn Taylor, a colleague from the previous mission brings him out of ‘retirement ‘ to investigate the death of Rory Bannatyne who has been secretly working on a......more

Ascension: the most remote island in the world. Elliot Kane, former spy, trying to leave the world of espionage behind. Kathryn Taylor: a stalled career in MI6, running the South Atlantic desk. Rory Bannatyne: covert technical specialist. Dead, apparently of suicide. Three friends from a mission man......more

Goodreads review by Sid

I was rather disappointed in Ascension. I thought its predecessor, A Shadow Intelligence, was very good; this wasn’t in the same class, I’m afraid. After his traumatic time in Kazakhstan, Elliot Kane has left the Intelligence Services and is quietly lecturing on obscure subjects in Oxford. He is, nat......more

Goodreads review by David

A very good, intelligent espionage thriller that moves from a dead agent on the tiny Atlantic island of Ascension to plans to militarize space (ascension, get it?). The POV switches back and forth between the agent sent out to investigate and his control on London who stumbles into the larger dimens......more