SET TO BE ADAPTED FOR THE SCREEN. Journalist John Bailey and CIA officer Ronnie Johnson join forces to outwit their most deadly adversary yet.

Winner, 2024 Danger Awards, People's choice award
Shortlisted, 2024 Ned Kelly Awards, Best Crime Fiction
 
‘Ayliffe is a master of the genre.’ Sulari Gentill

STEALING SECRETS IS A DEADLY GAME

Someone wants Russian millionaire Dmitry Lebedev dead. After years flying under the radar in Sydney, he’s just had a narrow escape when a sex worker is poisoned in his hotel room. In desperation he contacts his former CIA case officer, Ronnie Johnson, offering to expose a traitor inside the Australian government in return for protection.

John Bailey has spent decades risking his life to break news stories. Along the way he’s made some interesting friends, including Ronnie — who saved his life in Iraq — and Scarlett Merriman, whose night with Lebedev left her in a coma. And now they both need Bailey’s help.

While Bailey investigates what happened to Scarlett, Ronnie Johnson is calling in an old debt. Because the same people going after Lebedev have framed Ronnie for murder.

From Canberra to Moscow to Beijing, Killer Traitor Spy uncovers the new lines of espionage in the twenty-first century. It proclaims Ayliffe as a master of the genre.

‘A carefully crafted, propulsive thriller that sails uncomfortably close to the truth.’ Michael Brissenden

‘Torn from the headlines and relentlessly paced.’ Matthew Spencer