''The Fox'' is a novel by British writer Frederick Forsyth, published in 2018 by Bantam Press. The story concerns an SIS Cyber operation run by

Spymaster A spymaster is the person that leads a spy ring, or a secret service (such as an intelligence agency). Historical spymasters See also *List of American spies *List of British spies * List of German spies *List of fictional spymasters This is ...

Adrian Weston.

Plot

The British Prime Minister calls Sir Adrian Weston, former Deputy Chief of the British

Secret Intelligence Service The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...

, and asks him to handle a sensitive case. The computers of the Pentagon, the

NSA The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collectio ...

, and the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

have been hacked by a young British teenager, Luke Jennings, who was subsequently captured in an SAS raid in London. Weston, an ex- Parachute Regiment soldier-turned-

MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...

officer, devises a plan to take advantage of Jennings' skills in order to cripple

Iran's nuclear program The nuclear program of Iran is an ongoing scientific effort by Iran to research nuclear technology that can be used to make nuclear weapons. Iran has several research sites, two uranium mines, a research reactor, and uranium processing facili ...

, Russia's intensification programs, and

North Korea's nuclear program North Korea has a Korean People's Army, military nuclear weapon program, nuclear weapons program and, as of early 2020, is estimated to have an nuclear arsenal, arsenal of approximately 30 to 40 nuclear weapons and sufficient production of f ...

. Weston is assisted by

Special Air Service The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling and in 1950, it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terro ...

Captain Harry Williams, and Avigdor Hirsch,

Mossad Mossad ( , ), ; ar, الموساد, al-Mōsād, ; , short for ( he, המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים, links=no), meaning 'Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations'. is the national intelligence agency ...

operative and former

Special Forces Special forces and special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...

soldier. Yevgeni Krilov, head of the SVR, recognizes Weston's fingerprints on the operation and tries to thwart the operation.

Reception

Reviews were good. ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' called it "a classic thriller thats also eerily relevant".
reviewed at ''

''; October 25, 2018 ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' similarly stated that this book proves that "Forsyth deserves his place among the thriller greats".
reviewed at ''

''; published October 27, 2018

References

2018 British novels American thriller novels Novels by Frederick Forsyth Bantam Books books {{2010s-thriller-novel-stub