Page 8 - TORONTO NORTH April 2023

Launch of Chris Hadfield’s new novel :
The Defector
Random House Canada is pleased to announce that it will publish a new novel from astronaut and blockbuster bestselling author Chris Hadfield. The Defector, an exceptional Cold War thriller and next book in The Apollo Murders series, charts the hunt for a shadowy Soviet defector, goes onsale on October 10, 2023, and will be published simultaneously by Quercus in the UK and Mulholland Books in the United States.
Author Chris Hadfield says, “Writing The Defector was a joy, drawing on my own combat fighter/test pilot experiences, while interweaving the plot and characters with the real-world geopolitics and the secret rocket engine development of the early 1970s. That decade was such a similar time to now—political turmoil, armed conflict, Cold War tensions, social unrest—I hope it makes the high-tension thrills of The Defector feel even more real.”
Anne Collins, Random House Canada’s executive editor and Hadfield’s long-time editor says, “The Defector is just as authentic as Chris Hadfield’s #1 bestseller The Apollo Murders. What Chris doesn’t know from first-hand experience—this time as a jet fighter pilot—he researches meticulously, and the result is another intricately plotted, edge-of-your- seat adventure that puts you in the middle of the action. It’s like Top Gun written by a real top gun.”
Random House Canada’s publisher, Sue Kuruvilla, says, “We’re privileged to be publishing Chris Hadfield’s second thriller this fall. A much beloved Canadian icon and one of the most accomplished astronauts in the world, Chris once again takes readers on a gripping, action-packed journey into the heart of the Cold War.”
Israel. October, 1973. As the Yom Kippur War flares into life, a state- of-the-art Soviet MiG fighter is racing at breakneck speed over the arid scrublands below...and promptly disappears. NASA Flight Controller and
former top US test pilot Kaz Zemeckis watches the scene from the ground – and is quickly pulled into a dizzying, high- stakes game of spies, lies, and a possible high-level defection that plays out across three continents. The prize is beyond value: the secrets of the Soviets’ mythical “Foxbat” MiG-25, the fastest, highest- flying fighter plane in the world and the key to Cold War air supremacy.
But every defection is double- edged with risk, and Kaz needs to tread a careful line between trust and suspicion. Ultimately, he must invite the fox into the henhouse – bringing the defector into the heart of the United States’ most secret test site – and hope that, with skill and cunning, the games plays out his way.
For Chris Hadfield’s second heart- stopping thriller, we move from space to another rich and exciting part of his CV: his time as a test pilot in both the US Air Force and US Navy, and as an RCAF fighter pilot intercepting armed Soviet bombers in North American airspace. Full of insider detail, excitement, and political intrigue drawn from real events, The Defector brings us the nerve- shredding rush of aerial combat as told by one of the world’s top fighter pilots.
8 TORONTONORTHLifestyleAPRIL2023