The Recruit: The clever, gripping first book in the Pelican Black spy thriller series L. D. Sharpe 9780349138527

'It's just so exciting to see a powerful female character like Sarah Black . . . This is a fast-paced espionage thriller that feels fresh and exciting . . It will keep you up far too late!' - Holly Watt

'Sarah Black's wit and guile shines through . . a colourful, enjoyable book and the start of a promising series' - NetGalley reviewer,

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The spy game has a brand new player . . .

Sarah Black is startlingly smart and super frustrated . . . while her fellow fresh graduates are signing away their souls to square mile internships, she is sabotaging civil service exams and beating any chess opponent who dares face her. Surely there has to be more to life?

Enter, Michael.

Enigmatic, suave, and looking for a new recruit to his band of elite spies. His offer is irresistible, and Sarah leaps into the world of international espionage without hesitation.

But when Michael hears rumours of a catastrophic attack on an oil pipeline in the Caucasus, he whisks Sarah from London to Georgia with a new identity, a meagre brief and no backup.

Thrown into a hostile environment where nothing is as it seems, and no one can be trusted, Sarah must learn the rules of the game quickly, just to survive.

But is she really a player, or merely a pawn?

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Readers and reviewers are raving about The Recruit!

'A terrific tale with plenty of action, set in the novel theatre of the Caucasus . . . a cracking read' - NetGalley reviewer,

'A fabulously written gripping story that was a pleasure to read. I would absolutely recommend this book, it was brilliant' - NetGalley reviewer,

'The first in a series and I will definitely be reading the others . . . the female lead is very well written. I loved it' - NetGalley reviewer,

'Thoroughly entertaining . . . I would pick up the next book by Sharpe without hesitation' - NetGalley reviewer

'Definitely keeps the pages turning!' - NetGalley reviewer

'A really enjoyable spy thriller with a fresh feel and a strong central character' - NetGalley reviewer

'A slick fast paced espionage thriller that leans heavily into atmosphere, deception and the psychological uncertainty of entering the intelligence world for the first time' - NetGalley reviewer

'Bond, Bourne . . . now Black. Sharpe has served up a spy novel for the 21st century and a magnificent protagonist to lead it. Sarah Black is bold, brainy, and badass! And believable too - this story is as authentic as it is exciting, from the magnificently crafted cast of characters to the incredibly well-drawn locations. Gripping, pacy, and intelligent, I couldn't put it down' - Daniel Aubrey, author of Dark Island

'The Recruit introduces an impressive, complex, resourceful recruit to British espionage, and a world that is shabbier, darker, more ambiguous and far more compromised than the MI6 of James Bond. But it's every bit as tense and exciting . . . this is a sharply written thriller that is also sharply contemporary' - Michael Russell, author of the Stefan Gillespie thrillers

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The Recruit is the first instalment of L.D. Sharpe's series of modern spy thrillers. Perfect for fans of Mick Herron, I.S. Berry, Ava Glass and David Goodman.

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The Recruit was previously published by Burning Chair in 2022 as The King's Pawn by Lucy Hooft.

L.D. Sharpe has loved books for as long as she can remember - stories of adventure, of weird and wonderful places, and seeing the world through someone else's eyes. She studied languages and philosophy at Oxford and joined the Foreign Office straight out of university. She quickly moved across to the Department for International Development (DFID), where she spent time in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, China and Sierra Leone. She left DFID to work for Her Majesty Queen Rania in Jordan, while spending much of her time bumping around the desert in a Land Rover.

After Jordan, she spent several years in a jungle camp in Gabon surrounded by elephants and humpback whales, which is where the Pelican Black books began. They took life as a way to record all the best bits of people she had met and places she had been, with a plot to make them much more exciting. L.D. Sharpe has always plausibly denied being a spy - but the books were written to show what that life might have been like.

She now lives with her family and two mad dogs in Namibia, growing giant kelp and running the Luderitz Blue School.