Following 2022’s LANDSLIDE, Adam Sikes creates a contemporary John le Carré-like espionage thriller featuring Professor William Dresden, whose academic life and knowledge of history emulate Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon.

As Dresden tussles with egregiously false academic dishonor and a failed romance in southern France, a persistent caller, Adeline Parker, insists on meeting at a sidewalk bistro. Before café au lait is served, Adeline spies a figure at the café doorway and forces Dresden behind a makeshift barricade. An explosive device does its thing, and they flee to the UK. Parker is “an intelligence officer with Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service…more popularly referred to as MI6. James Bloody Bond,” the U.S. equivalent of the CIA. Easily manipulated mainstream and social media finger Dresden and Parker as the masterminds behind the blast.

"Instead of the trite rollercoaster analogy, THE UNDERHANDED is a thriller-coaster ride through a nightmare theme park of corruption and betrayal at the brink of civil annihilation."

Parker has been investigating the Strasbourg Executive, a collective term for a neofascist cabal that wants to return each European country to its ethnic integrity, “the push for nationalism, anti-Muslim laws, violence against immigrants. Brexit was the first step.” The Executive confederacy is led by the Kanzler, or chancellor. Dresden’s historical research has identified dots not yet connected. The Executive assumes it’s only a matter of time until Dresden links a major dot: a reticent bank with no branches but with a hefty balance sheet.

Although in good health, the current Kanzler dies. A maniacal manipulator seizes control without the faction’s knowledge. The new Kanzler orders explosives deployed at indigenous European venues as a reverse psychology tactic and manipulates social media to blame extremist immigrant groups. “The Executive is an evil organization that has no room for anyone but itself.”

Which espionage thriller would be complete without torture to obtain necessary information? This time, it’s not blood, guts and gore, but simply sensory deprivation --- no food, sound or sight for days. Dresden and Parker out-bad the bad guys and face insurmountable odds to thwart a virtual nuclear societal implosion.

Instead of the trite rollercoaster analogy, THE UNDERHANDED is a thriller-coaster ride through a nightmare theme park of corruption and betrayal at the brink of civil annihilation.