The Quiet Assassin by Thomas Kirkwood

Here is a truly original thriller, comparable to the very best of vintage Le Carré. It is set behind the Berlin Wall in the heart of the East German police state and it features one of the most unique and winning heroines since Lucy in Ken Follett’s Eye of the Needle. Her name is Käte Frassek, a resistance fighter since the age of eighteen, who over the course of twenty years leads a double life in her courageous campaign to rouse her countrymen to revolt against their repressive regime. She is a wife, a mother, a scientist, a lover… and an assassin.

Against a backdrop of the Cold War in the 1960s, an abiding love develops between Käte, while still the young wife of an East German official, and an American physician innocent of who she is and what she is doing. In the remarkable climax to her years of plotting against the head of the State’s secret police, she finally must risk not only her own life but her son’s and lover’s as well.

THE QUIET ASSASSIN is available from Amazon.

 *****

“NAIL-BITING
… PERFECT!”
—Norfolk Virginian Pilot

“POWERFUL … TRULY RIVETING!” —Chattanoogo News-¬Free Press
“A BUBBLING THRILLER … THE TENSION BUILDS.”
—Cleveland Plain Dealer

SUSPENSE AND INTRIGUE … A CLASSIC ADVENTURE.”
—Mobile Press Register

*****

Thomas Kirkwood is best known for his Cold War thrillers. Before moving to Amazon, he was published by Macmillan, Collier Macmillan (Europe), Donald I. Fine (an imprint of Penguin), Signet (an imprint of NAL), Brilliance (audio), and Stjerne-Spenning (Europe). After many years in the EU, he now makes his home in Denver, Colorado. In addition to writing fiction, Kirkwood is a graduate professor of European politics and an independent consultant to several law firms.

Kirkwood’s novels include “THE SVALBARD PASSAGE,” “THE QUIET ASSASSIN,” “THE TRADE,” “LACKING VIRTUES” and “THE POPPY BROKER,” all of which are now available in both physical and Kindle editions. Under the pseudonym Tommy Vilar, Kirkwood has begun a swashbuckling series featuring the Italian counterpart to James Bond, Dante Passoni. The first volume, entitled “SAVE ITALY! Forget the Rest,” is now available. Under a second pseudonym, Chub Yublinsky, Kirkwood has published a novel dealing with teenage love and loss entitled “FAITH A Secret Life.”