This auspicious debut announces a bright new voice in comic suspense. The blend of action and picaresque buffoonery flatteringly calls Conan Doyle’s Brigadier Gerard tales to mind, and Payne pulls off a genuinely surprising conclusion. As their mission progresses, the well-meaning but bumbling Orlov finds himself enmeshed deeper and deeper in plots he doesn’t understand. When Orlov sets off through the building to look for Kosek, he’s mistaken for a potential operative himself and, despite being wholly clueless, is paired up with another agent on a covert assignment to protect the king from assassins. He enters the room it’s in through an open window, picks up the call, and gets a cryptic “life and death” message he’s told to convey to someone named Agent Kosek. Taking a shortcut through an alley one day, Orlov becomes concerned that the phone he hears ringing in a government office remains unanswered. 'Highly engaging, and written with an engaging lightness of touch, Citizen Orlov marks the debut of a comic novelist to watch for the future.'ĭr.Set in an unnamed central European kingdom at the end of WWI, Payne’s stellar debut pokes hilarious fun at spy fiction through the exploits of a fishmonger named Orlov. A timeless work which will, I fear, be forever timely.'ĭixe Wills, Author of Places to Hide and New World Order 'A triumph-and an answer to that age-old question of what would have happened had Gogol, Kafka and G. A timeless classic for our current moment a paranoid and comic thriller with a surprise on every page.'ĭon Scardino, Producer/Director, 30 Rock, New Amsterdam 'A stunning debut! A page turning, down-the-rabbit-hole delight, told with equal measure of wit and suspense. He holds a Master of Arts degree in Novel Writing from Middlesex University, London. This auspicious debut announces a bright new voice in comic suspense.' Jonathan Payne is a British-American writer based in Washington, DC. The blend of action and picaresque buffoonery flatteringly calls Conan Doyle's Brigadier Gerard tales to mind. 'Payne's stellar debut pokes hilarious fun at spy fiction through the exploits of a fishmonger named Orlov. He has names, and information he can use in his case, is suddenly freed, and forced to work again for the Ministry, by blackmail. Orlov manages to foil the plot, but a man dies, and he’s put on trial. His first assignment To safeguard the King when he visits the scenic town of Kufzig. He is assigned to Citizen Agent Zelle, an alluring, mysterious woman, who out to get the King. Payne mixes Franz Kafka's surreal absurdism with the ingenious plotting of Graham Greene's spy novels, then adds a hilarious layer of deadpan comedy.' Enter Citizen Orlov, a simple fishmonger and an honest, upright citizen, who stumbles into the Ministry of Security, and consequently a hidden world of espionage and secrecy.

The helter-skelter plot involv(es) a hapless revolutionary party, an alluring belly dancer, two hotels with almost exactly the same name - oh, and plans to assassinate the king.

'The most fun spy thriller we've read in ages.

Citizen Orlov by Jonathan Payne