Chris Hadfield Announces New Thriller Novel The Defector

When he’s not flying through space, Colonel Chris Hadfield has been known to publish a number of books, more recently diving into the thriller genre with his 2021 release of The Apollo Murders, which follows a group of astronauts on a top-secret mission to the moon, but not all of them are what they appear. If you enjoyed Hadfield’s recent books, you’ll be interested to learn he has just announced a new thriller called The Defectors, which promises a story set during the Cold War and involves the mysterious disappearance of a state-of-the-art Soviet MIG fighter.

The book’s description reads: Israel, late 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 US Navy 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 must 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 game plays out his way.

For Chris Hadfield’s second heart-stopping thriller, we move from Space to another rich and exciting part of Chris’s CV: his time as a top test pilot in both the US Air Force and the 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 best fighter pilots.

The book has already received praise from a number of famous names, including film-maker James Cameron, who described the novel as “A nail-biting Cold War thriller.” Andy Weir, author of The Martian, describes it as “An exciting journey to an alternate past.” The Defector is available to pre-order now, and will be published on 10th October.