Michael Alcroft

A soldier turned secret agent. A student turned traitor. And a detective turned criminal. One’s loyalty can change very quickly when you put a price on it, as these three men discover at The Spy Bazaar.

Europe, 1910. The Great Powers are on the brink of the carnage of the Great War, and Britain’s new Secret Service Bureau needs answers. Short of agents, the Bureau convinces ex-Black Watch soldier Nicholas Walsh to find any evidence he can of a German surprise attack that could threaten the British Isles. Walsh has seen enough of war and wants to return to a quiet civilian life, but he agrees to take on this mission out of loyalty to one of his former commanders.

As Walsh learns to navigate the spy bazaar of Brussels, where European military secrets are bought, sold, and stolen throughout the city, he stumbles onto a technical innovation that could determine Britain’s fate in a war with the Triple Alliance. The information is locked in the mind of a young German scientist who has fled to Brussels, and someone wants him back in Germany - at any price.

Walsh fights to protect his scientist, and tries to prise funds out of the British government to pay for the information, while unknown forces obstruct his efforts. Walsh also needs to determine if the technical secret is a genuine offer or a ploy by the Germans to expose his identity and mission. To complete his task, Walsh is forced to seek assistance from the Brussels underworld without jeopardising his own identity – and his life. Along the way he struggles against corrupt detectives, Sûreté officers, reckless anarchists, competing intelligence operatives, opportunistic criminals, and hired killers. They share only one thing in common: they all ply their trades at The Spy Bazaar.