A dazzling new spy thriller about a female CIA agent whose extraordinary powers lead her into the dangerous heart of the collapsing Soviet Union – and the path of a killer that shouldn't exist. Minsk, 1990. The Soviet Union is crumbling. The scavengers and predators are gathering, eager to pick the meat off the bones of a dying empire. THE SPY: Melvina Donleavy is part of a US trade delegation... and on her first undercover mission with the CIA. Mel has a secret skill: she is a 'super recognizer', someone who never forgets a face. She is the CIA's early warning system, on watch for hostile agents trying to extract fissionable materials from the moribund USSR. THE SERIAL KILLER: On the streets of Minsk, women are being strangled. Many more have disappeared. The Soviet Union is not a gentle place for women and too many men are capable of such violence, but the truth is worse: just one man is responsible. Worse still, the authorities will never admit to his existence – serial killers, after all, are a symptom of capitalist decadence. And now he has a new target... THE SPY HUNTER: Chairman of the BSSR's KGB, recipient of the Hero of the Soviet Union medal, the Order of Lenin, the Medal for Valour, the Order of the Patriotic War and the Order of the Red Star. They say you never hear his footsteps until he's carrying your coffin. And now he has a new target... The Cold War may be coming to a close, but Mel is in danger of being obliterated by its fallout. Whichever way she turns, the wolves are gathering.