"He may be a bastard, but he's our bastard."

Parliamentary lobbyist Damian Beaufort is a professional manipulator - clever, charming, ruthless - but when Labour wins power his Tory-heavy agency spirals towards bankruptcy. And the rest of his life looks like going the same way.

Salvation comes not from booze or sex - despite his best efforts - but a far less likely quarter: the UK's Secret Intelligence Service. It also comes at a cost.

Beaufort finds himself entangled in a lethal web of conflicts: an internecine turf war between MI5 and MI6; underhand Westminster manoeuvrings; Eurocrats bent on reversing Brexit; and, seemingly pulling all the strings, the sinister head of Russia's FSB.

Beaufort's estranged mother, one of the world's most glamorous and popular actresses, has one secret she withholds from everyone - especially her son. The identity of his father.

Soon the lobbyist-turned-spy isn't just fighting to save his agency, his reputation and his country. He's fighting for his life, and he's fighting for revenge.

First-time author Lionel Zetter brings dazzling insider knowledge to bear in this fast-moving contemporary thriller with a totally unexpected denouement in the Chamber of the House of Commons.