Porter was a regular columnist for the Observer and now writes about European power and politics for The Hive website in the US. He has written five bestselling thrillers, including Brandenburg, which won the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, and Empire State and The Dying Light, which were both nominated for the award. He is frequently described as the heir to John le Carre, and Firefly is a triumphant return to fiction from an author at the top of his game.
This epic novel of spies and migrants should be up there for the year's thriller awards ... remarkable ... his best book yet. Full of poignant scenes and mesmeric action sequences - Sunday Times With its vivid portrait of the flood of refugees moving west from Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey, the book could not be more timely. Porter's sympathy for the dispossessed is as cogent here as his skill at sustaining narrative tension - Guardian Splendid... precocious Syrian 13-year-old Naji is a hero of appeal and intelligence - The Times A worthy addition to Porter's impressive canon of post-Cold War spy thrillers - Mail on Sunday Beautifully written and filled with fascinating, if thoroughly disturbing, insights into ISIS's cruel mentality and the physical and mental hardships suffered by desperate homeless refuges, this is possibly the most exciting thriller you'll read this summer - Irish Independent Porter is a wizard with words ... a very good thriller - Literary Review