The Children’s Game: A Thriller

Summary

A frighteningly plausible, fast-paced thriller about a Russian cyberattack on America, involving fake news and anonymous hackers.

The CIA has learned that the Kremlin is about to launch a sophisticated propaganda operation aimed at discrediting and disrupting the United States and ultimately restoring Russia to great nation status. Intercepted intelligence suggests that the operation will hinge on a single, breaking news event in Eastern Europe, supported by a sustained campaign of disinformation and cyberattacks.

Code-named the “Children’s Game”—a chess stratagem that leads to checkmate in four moves—it was probably conceived by a Russian billionaire and former FSB officer named Andrei Turov. For years Turov has been developing the infrastructure for a new kind of warfare that exploits weaknesses in western democracies and manipulates public opinion. His organization offers the Kremlin plausible deniability.

But the United States has its own secret weapon: Christopher Niles, a former CIA intelligence officer, who understands Turov’s ambitions and capabilities. It falls to him and his small team—composed of his journalist half-brother Jon, a special-forces operative he would trust with his life, and Anna Carpenter, a resourceful US senator with deep roots in the intelligence community—to unravel Turov’s plot and restore truth to a world spiraling into chaos.

Children’s Game is a frighteningly realistic, timely thriller that delves into the secret corners of Vladimir Putin’s Russia, exploring the shifting world order and the murky realm of US–Russia relations.