Dark Arena : the Frenchman returns
(Book)

"Written by a former French spy, Dark Arena is an espionage thriller that takes the reader through an invisible but violent battle for energy supremacy in Europe that led the invasion of Ukraine. February 2022. An officer of the Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE), the French foreign intelligence agency, delivers a package of top secret Russian military information from Prague to Paris, and is subsequently assassinated. So begins a cat and mouse game across Europe as DGSE agent Alec de Payns races to find the source of what has become regular "drops" of highly sensitive information regarding Russian military operations. De Payns infiltrates the clandestine meeting a of Russian private military company, follows the trail of a shady individual codenamed Starkand, and nearly gets assassinated himself. Meanwhile, de Payns marriage is falling apart and his mental state unraveling as his wife, Romy, pulls away from her increasingly paranoid husband. But as his personal life crumbles, his professional life makes a breakthrough and the DGSE are finally closing in on Starkand and the mysterious head of an American spy network--who is much closer to home than Alec ever imagined." -- Amazon.com

"Alec de Payns, espionage operative of the Y division of the DGSE, France's famed foreign intelligence service, is tasked with tracking down an agent of influence sending highly classified material against the Kremlin to embassies all over Europe. A deadly conspiracy is aligning the West against Russia. But who is behind it? And to what end? The clues lead to a secret meeting of businessmen, terrorists, and mercenaries on a luxury yacht in the Mediterranean, which de Payns must infiltrate. What he discovers sets off a Europe-wide mahunt in a desperate scramble to prevent an international catastrophe. Former DGSE spy Jack Beaumont's Dark Arena is another chillingly plausible thriller delivering all the taut plotting, superb aciton, and authentic spycraft that made The Frenchman a critically acclaimed bestseller."--Back cover