Saigon, 1968, on the eve of Tet. The Vietnamese New Year draws near, and the city waits, restless and uneasy, the air thick with rumours of ceasefire and the taste of betrayal.
Smith has served his time in the secret world – an Australian case officer grown weary of the lies that pass for intelligence, and the loyalties that dissolve at first suspicion. When a colleague is murdered and leaves behind a single word in a blood-stained notebook, Smith finds himself drawn back into the game he thought he’d abandoned.
The trail leads him through bars, alleys, and burned-out villages, deeper into a war that has already devoured truth and loyalty, where every debt must be paid.
As the city slides towards chaos, Smith must decide what is worth saving and what must be left behind.
Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Spies and Politics, Espionage, Historical
About The Author
A.C. Edwards writes historical and contemporary fiction exploring power, conflict, and the individuals caught in the machinery of larger events. His novels range from espionage and political intrigue to frontier and historical fiction, united by a fascination with moral ambiguity, institutional failure, and the human consequences of history.
A former Australian Army Major, Andrew served as a paratrooper and Special Forces officer across Southeast Asia and the South Pacific, including operational attachments with the Malaysian and Indonesian armies.
Following his military service, he worked as a close-protection specialist, a security contractor in the Middle East and Afghanistan, and later as Regional Security Director for a multinational firm. These experiences inform his writing, lending authenticity to stories shaped by conflict, uncertainty, and competing loyalties.
Born in Singapore and long based across the Asia-Pacific, Andrew brings a strong sense of place to his fiction, creating richly realised settings where history, conflict, and individual lives intersect.
He lives between Brisbane and Hong Kong with his wife, a boisterous dog, and a large rescue cat.
Readers of le Carré, Greene, and other writers of morally complex literary fiction will find in his work the same quiet tension, human ambiguity, and lasting sense of consequence.
