by Tim Powers
First published 2001
Andrew Hale receives a cryptic phone call that pulls him back into British intelligence after ten years away. The message concerns Declare, an unfinished operation that began when Hale was a child recruit at age seven. In 1963, Hale must confront the supernatural forces he first encountered as a double agent in Nazi-occupied Paris twenty years earlier. There he met Elena Teresa Ceniza-Bendiga, a Communist operative he loves, and Kim Philby, the notorious British traitor. The three operatives discovered that the Cold War masks a larger conflict between human intelligence services and inhuman entities. Their investigation leads them to a mountain in the Middle East where biblical powers still hold sway. Hale realizes the Great Game extends far beyond national espionage into realms that threaten human souls. The operation will demand everything from the three agents as they face forces that have shaped history from the shadows.
Genres: historical-fiction, mystery, fantasy, supernatural, thriller, espionage
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Middle East, Nazi-Occupied Paris
Period: 1963, 1940s
528 pages · Hardcover · William Morrow
Content warnings: death, violence