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Cold Sunset
  • Published: 3 September 2026
  • ISBN: 9781405978361
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 320

Cold Sunset

Formats & editions
Tr. Paperback
8 Sept 2026
EBook
3 Sept 2026
Audiobook
3 Sept 2026
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The third novel starring accidental spy Gabriel Dax by Sunday Times bestseller William Boyd

Cold War Moscow is a place smouldering with secrets. Gabriel Dax has been tasked with delivering a mysterious Blanco drawing to celebrated defector Kit Caldwell. But Caldwell is convinced the KGB suspects him of treachery, and he wants out now.

When Gabriel is ordered by his enigmatic handler Faith Green to help, he is pulled into a web of shifting loyalties and dangerous escape plans. As tensions rise and trust fractures, he is forced to confront the fine line between devotion and deception…

Cold Sunset, the third novel starring accidental spy Gabriel Dax, takes you deep into a shadow-drenched world where loyalty blurs, motives darken and every step could be fatal, in a tautly woven mystery from acclaimed bestseller William Boyd.
  • Published: 3 September 2026
  • ISBN: 9781405978361
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 320
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About the author

William Boyd

William Boyd is the author of one work of non-fiction, three collections of short stories and thirteen novels, including the bestselling historical spy thriller Restless – winner of the Costa Novel of the Year – and Any Human Heart, in which the character of Ian Fleming features. Among his other awards are the Whitbread First Novel Prize, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Prix Jean Monnet. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 2005, he was awarded the CBE. Born in Ghana in 1952, William Boyd spent much of his early life in West Africa. He now divides his time between the south-west of France and Chelsea, where he lives a stone’s throw from James Bond’s London address.
portrait photo of William Boyd

Also by William Boyd

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The Predicament
The Mirror and the Road: Conversations with William Boyd
The Romantic
Trio
Nat Tate
Love is Blind
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Praise for Cold Sunset

William Boyd once again brings to the spy novel his particular storytelling genius’

MICK HERRON

Boyd is one of my favourite authors – he never disappoints

KATE ATKINSON

Extravagantly enjoyable'

THE TIMES

One of our most thrilling writers

DAILY EXPRESS

Tremendous

THE SCOTSMAN

Boyd's ruthlessly efficient storytelling pins us to the page

IRISH DAILY MAIL

Dax is far more interesting than the heroes of most espionage novels

YORKSHIRE POST

Enthralling

THE CRACK

Boyd is always engaging, intelligent and deeply satisfying. I rate him one of our greatest living novelists

PETER JAMES

Simply the best realistic storyteller of his generation

SEBASTIAN FAULKS

There are few reading pleasures as great as giving in to a William Boyd novel

SUNDAY TIMES

Boyd writes with a limber sensuality, drawing the reader, word by word, into his web

PARKER BILAL

A master of the spy thriller

BRIAM MCGILOWAY

Boyd's signature investigation of human connections is always compelling

S J BENNETT

Boyd is at the top of his game

MONTY DON

A master storyteller

THE OBSERVER

For page-turning glamour, you can bank on a William Boyd novel to hit the spot.

GUARDIAN

The finest storyteller of his generation

DAILY TELEGRAPH

What could be more reassuring in troubling times than a new William Boyd novel?

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

If it’s true escapism you’re after, William Boyd can always be relied upon to transport the reader from reality

VOGUE

What Boyd has written undoubtedly reinforces him as one of Britain's most talented and readable novelists writing today

INDEPENDENT