Simon’s first novel, DAMAGED, was published in 1998 by Canongate, to great critical acclaim:
'Debut of a roaring and prodigal talent... Not so much a novel as a life experience. Don't miss it.' Literary Review
'a powerhouse of a book, a thriller that sends off literary sparks in all directions.’ Evening News
‘Cruel, violent and lyrical, it's Iain Banks meeting Alan Warner in Tom Clancy's missile silo. Excellent.’ Select ‘Hard, bleak and full on, this is one to carry around with you.’ The Big Issue.
Hodder republished DAMAGED in July 2011.
His second novel, RAGE (Hodder 2006), is a blistering thriller set before and during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.It tells the story of Jonah Said, a stateless anti-hero caught in the middle of a desperate search by some very frightening people for the priceless cargo of an abandoned container, which leads deep into the most dangerous war zone on earth.Nick Sayers at Hodder, who acquired UK and Commonwealth rights in a two book deal, calls the novel ‘a dazzling piece of work, a sort of Heart of Darkness thriller, hallucinogenically exciting’.Smith concurs: ‘this is one of the best thrillers I’ve read in years, intelligent, gripping, horrific and human’.The author is an ex-soldier whowent on to become the director of an organization dedicated to the eradication of landmines. He now writes full time.
The astonishing sequel, A LOYAL SPY, was published in 2010 and won the Crime Writers' Association Steel Dagger Award, beating established giants Scott Turow and Henry Porter.
The last time Jonah saw Nor ed-Din he was lying face down in a pool of icy water in the Khyber Pass. For many years, Jonah had been under the impression that he'd killed him there. Jonah: an undercover operative for one of Britain's most secret agencies. Nor: the agent he befriended, recruited, then left for dead. Miranda: the woman he thought he loved enough to give up everything for.
How far can loyalty be stretched before it reaches a limit? Millions of lives depend on the answer, as a twisting road of betrayal and revenge leads from the mountains of Afghanistan to the heart of London, and a ticking bomb.
Simon's new novel is a Washington-set thriller called ROCK CREEK PARK to be published by Hodder in 2012.
Washington DC. Snowmageddon.
When former police protection officer Harry Armstrong stumbles on the naked corpse of a young woman in the snow in Rock Creek Park she does not anticipate that within a few hours she will be implicated in a conspiracy involving an opportunistic Russian scientist, an underground laboratory full of psychotic baboons and the scientist's strange and compelling niece.
Assigned to the murder of the woman in the park, DC homicide cop Michael Freeman quickly realizes that the last thing the authorities want is for him to get close to the truth. When the initial killing is swiftly followed by a series of grisly murders, Freeman finds himself up against the might of the Pentagon and the powerful Senator from the Armed Services Committee who is his chief suspect.
The investigation leads Freeman to a US government funded genetic enhancement programme that began life in the old Soviet Union, was co-opted by the Russia mob after the collapse of communism and has now been resurrected by the Pentagon's secretive Defense Science Office.
Carving a violent ary from the United States capital to a Caribbean hideaway and ending in a remote outpost of the Caucasus Mountains, ROCK CREEK PARK provides a terrifying glimpse into the murky realm where organized crime, the military and the hidden parts of government vie for control.
