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Paul Blake
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A Young Man's Game Kindle Edition

by Paul Blake (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 out of 5 stars 48 ratings

Murder, Betrayal, Revenge. Alec Foster is going to realise being an MI6 agent is… A Young Man’s Game.


Alec Foster is Head of Section in Berlin for MI6. He is fifty-one, and a borderline alcoholic counting down the days to retirement. Foster meets with his Russian SVR counterpart and is told of a plot to assassinate the British Prime Minister by a traitor in MI6. Before Foster can be told who the traitor is, his Russian friend is murdered and Foster barely escapes.

Foster is chased through the streets of Berlin by the assassins, the Russian SVR and the city’s police. The ageing agent must use his long-forgotten skills and push his body to the very limits to prevent a return to the mistrust and fears of the Cold War.

Foster comes face to face with actions from his past, as he has to rekindle relationships to survive and protect the ones he loves.


A Young Man’s Game is a thrilling story of revenge, betrayal, and redemption.


Reviews for A Young Man's Game

"A Young Man's Game by Paul Blake is an excellent debut novel with loads of twists and turns." Amazon 5★ Review

"A fantastic debut, and definitely an author to keep an eye on in the future." Amazon 5★ Review

"A pacy, well-plotted page-turner and an exciting thriller." Amazon 5★ Review

"I give this story a strong 5/5 stars. I highly recommend this novel to anyone who loves this genre." Amazon 5★ Review

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  1. Print length
    355 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    July 17, 2019
  4. File size
    6.3 MB
  5. Page Flip
    Enabled
  6. Word Wise
    Enabled
  7. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for A Young Man's Game

"Paul makes quite a splash with this, his first book. The detail he has put into the story is phenomenal." - John Prescott, Author, After, Preservation Protocol, and Something Deeper

"Paul Blake's A Young Man's Game is filled with action that holds your attention, characters that are relatable; relatable in the way that they make you experience the entire wheel of emotions." - Jacob Rundle, Author, Augur of Shadows

"I really enjoyed this book about an ageing spy. Alec Foster is my kind of guy. Could he beat Jason Bourne in a fist fight? Hell no. Could he drink him under the table? More than likely!" Dean Tongue, Author, Machine Gun Jesus, Polly The Paedophile Slayer, V is for Violence

"A Young Man's Game is a quick read, with fast-paced action, set in Berlin. Alec Foster is a spy with a mission to identify the traitor in M16. His story unfolds with page-turning suspense." Lisa De Castro, Author, Margot

What readers are saying about Paul Blake

"A fantastic debut, and definitely an author to keep an eye on in the future." - Sean McMahon, Author, Fir Lodge, The Dark Restarter

"Paul Blake writes in an engaging manner that draws the reader in from the opening lines onwards." Craig Cavanagh, Goodreads Reviewer

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07VHS3HFH
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ ; 2nd edition (July 17, 2019)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 17, 2019
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 6.3 MB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 355 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 out of 5 stars 48 ratings

About the author

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Paul Blake

Paul Blake

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Paul Blake started writing in 2016 when he took a creative writing module to complete his Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree after failing far too many programming modules. He discovered a passion and has been writing since.

His first novel, A Young Man’s Game was published in 2018. He released a short story collection called A Few Hours After This in April 2019. He is currently outlining the sequel to A Young Man’s Game and also working on a ninja based novel.

His favourite authors are (in no particular order): David Morrell, Neal Stephenson, Nick Harkaway, Cory Doctorow, Sean McMahon, Peter Clines, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Tom Clancy, Michael Crichton, Michael Marshall Smith, Tom Rob Smith, Ernest Cline

Paul is 44 and lives in London, England with his wife and three boys.

He has a blog at https://paulblakeauthor.com and can be found on Twitter @paulblakeauthor, feel free to say hi.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
48 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers enjoy the book's compelling spy-thriller storyline with unexpected twists and turns, and one customer notes it illustrates brains over brawn. Moreover, the writing quality receives positive feedback, with one customer describing it as brilliantly written. Additionally, customers appreciate the character development, with one review highlighting the hero's amazing skills, and they find the book smart and informative.

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9 customers mention "Action-packed storyline"9 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the compelling spy-thriller storyline of the book, which is laced with action and features unexpected twists and turns.

"...the day in what is a compelling spy-thriller storyline with unexpected twists and turns, what becomes just as much of a page-turner is the story of..." Read more

"...The plot is twisted and clever except for the long winded, detailed descriptions of every street Alec walks down and many of the land marks on each..." Read more

"What an exciting insight to such an interesting character...." Read more

"...He's off to a wonderful start. This beats James Bond any day. Wonderfully done!" Read more

8 customers mention "Writing quality"8 positive0 negative

Customers praise the writing quality of the book, with individual reviews highlighting its brilliant structure, good editing, and effective use of detail.

"...The editing and sentence are both good, above average for newbie writers...." Read more

"...Alec Foster is brilliantly written as a man truly out of place, in a world that was once his oyster. Very gripping emotionally as well as mentally." Read more

"...I am eager to see Paul continue to home and perfect his craft. He's off to a wonderful start. This beats James Bond any day. Wonderfully done!" Read more

"...Fast pace and truly amazing. You MUST read this book!" Read more

4 customers mention "Character development"4 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the character development in the book, with one mentioning the hero's amazing skill.

"...of the story is hard to witness because there is a host of genuinely engaging characters in this story that are desperately trying to reach out and..." Read more

"What an exciting insight to such an interesting character...." Read more

"...The hero shows amazing skill and perseverance even while wrapped in his own demons. Fast pace and truly amazing. You MUST read this book!" Read more

"...In Alec Foster we have a refreshing hero: smart and skilled, but past his prime, a borderline alcoholic who is relatable in his insecurities and..." Read more

3 customers mention "Readability"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the book readable and smart, with one customer describing it as an amazing ride through the workings of British intelligence.

"An amazing ride through the in workings of British intelligence. The hero shows amazing skill and perseverance even while wrapped in his own demons...." Read more

"...In Alec Foster we have a refreshing hero: smart and skilled, but past his prime, a borderline alcoholic who is relatable in his insecurities and..." Read more

"...No spoiler alerts, but this was an enjoyable and--dare I say it--informative read that evoked the Golden Age of Cold War espionage. Five stars!" Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Eulipion
    5.0 out of 5 stars White Hot Story and Characters That Pull You in
    Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    Paul Blake has put together an entertaining novel with A Young Man's Game, but the story goes deeper than just a compelling spy thriller. Blake's main character, Alec, is a study on middle age and the profound value relationships have in our lives.

    Alec is in his early 50s and is a bit of a wash-out as in the world of espionage. But while Alec's sneering officemates might see him as the run-of-the-mill, going-nowhere-fast office loser, what they don't see is a man who's suffered deep losses that he never processed and cannot escape a crushing inability to forgive himself over perceived personal failures,

    However, terrible threats force poor Alec to step out of his isolated misery and engage in the kind of spycraft reserved for much younger agents, and he feels it physically — painfully. I write this a reader in his 50s who engages in pursuits probably too young for myself, and I really related to this particular aspect of the main character.

    Alec's internal monologues are my internal monologues: "This is probably going to hurt for weeks. … I don't think I should be doing this. … Watch out before you do a number on yourself, dummy." If Blake needs any confirmation that men in their 50s think that way when they're pushing the envelope, I can assure him that he's right on the money.

    And, as I mentioned, Alec doesn't just feel the physical toll of his age, but the emotional toll of his previous traumas and inability to deal with them properly. That aspect of the story is hard to witness because there is a host of genuinely engaging characters in this story that are desperately trying to reach out and connect with him. Moreover, the whole cast of characters feel like real people, not just two-dimensional devices, and they love Alec and worry about him. However, aspects of Alec's psyche and experience (that I don't want to spoil) make it almost impossible for him to reach back.

    So, as we watch Alec struggle to save the day in what is a compelling spy-thriller storyline with unexpected twists and turns, what becomes just as much of a page-turner is the story of watching the people in Alec's life struggle to help this lonesome, aging man save himself.
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  • Vigilant Reader
    4.0 out of 5 stars A good spy novel.
    Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    Title – A Young Man's Game
    Author – Paul Blake
    Genre – Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Spy
    Word Count 78,000 245 pages
    Rating 4 stars out of 5
    No. 37 - 2018
    Posted 10/13/2018

    My Impressions: Action packed spy/love story set in Berlin, Germany.

    Main Characters:
    Alec Foster – M-16 British Spy
    Claudia – Also at M-16
    Authur – Alec’s boss
    Plus many, many more.

    A Young Man’s Game cast Alec as a fifty-one-year-old spy for Britain’s M-16 organization who gets a second chance at life after years of burying himself in a bottle. A plot has been hatched to murder a high-ranking British official.
    Alec tells Authur he plans to meet with his counterpart in the Russian SPG to learn the details of the plot. At the meeting place his contact is murdered and Alec barely escapes. He spends the night eluding several Russian thugs, the German police and British Embassy security.
    Eventually he goes to the apartment of a long-lost love and the romance angle kicks in.
    In the end Alec unravels the mystery of who had the Russian murdered and why.

    The editing and sentence are both good, above average for newbie writers.
    The plot is twisted and clever except for the long winded, detailed descriptions of every street Alec walks down and many of the land marks on each side of the street.
    Character development of the main characters is detailed.
    The writing spent far too much time on descriptions of Berlin that had little to do with the plot.

    I enjoyed the story and recommend the read for thriller fans.
    There is some reference to sexual situations but they are mild.

    This review was provided in exchange for a free book.
    Vigilant Reader Book Reviews.
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  • Gil Diaz
    5.0 out of 5 stars Everyone has a past
    Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    What an exciting insight to such an interesting character. So many things in this book to relate to, we all have past...but what happens when it all catches up to you. When you least expect it and when you need to move forward the most! Alec Foster is brilliantly written as a man truly out of place, in a world that was once his oyster. Very gripping emotionally as well as mentally.
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  • John P
    5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing first effort from a promising author
    Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    Paul makes quite a splash with this, his first book. The detail he has put into the story is phenomenal. I felt as if I could go to Google maps and follow Alec's adventure. A number of seemingly random details knit together as the tale progresses and the action heats up.

    I am eager to see Paul continue to home and perfect his craft. He's off to a wonderful start. This beats James Bond any day. Wonderfully done!
    Helpful
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  • wickedwolf79
    5.0 out of 5 stars A Magnificent Read!
    Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    An amazing ride through the in workings of British intelligence. The hero shows amazing skill and perseverance even while wrapped in his own demons. Fast pace and truly amazing. You MUST read this book!
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Jasmine
    5.0 out of 5 stars Splendid
    Reviewed in India on September 27, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    It's beautifully written. Its fast, fierce and brave. The story is outstanding. Its work of a genius.
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  • Eaton Krone - Sci-fi Satire Author
    5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic spy thriller
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 15, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    Stories. They take you on a journey. Some transport you to the peaks of mythical mountains, the darkest depths of long-forgotten seas, or even the farthest reaches of the universe, and beyond.

    But some are more familiar, placing you on good-old level terra firma… in the streets of Berlin… being chased by bad guys… without knowing whom to trust. Given, it might not sound all that familiar to most people, but author Paul Blake manages to pull you into this exact scenario in the shoes of Alec Foster, Head of Section for MI6 in Germany’s capital.

    I’m a sucker for a good spy thriller, with the likes of Robert Ludlum and James Patterson keeping my page-turning fingers in shape over the years. And now, Blake has given them some more gym-time with A Young Man’s Game.

    I’m not going to delve into the plot – reading the back-cover blurb, you can decide for yourself whether this story fits your particular taste buds. But when I read the blurb, I just knew I HAD to read this book. Why? Because, like the protagonist, Alec Foster, my body can feel the pressure that the weight of age is constantly heaping onto it. And every year, as the needle of that scale climbs a little higher, my ability-score drops a bit lower. In my mid-forties, I’m not falling apart yet, but I’m also not able to do things with the same gusto as in my mid-thirties. That’s the dilemma I expected Alec Foster would face, too, and that’s precisely what Paul Blake delivered.

    The story itself progresses at just the right pace – not too overwhelming, and not too slow – and you can see the author did his homework; he has a knack for making you feel right at home, even in an unfamiliar setting. You know exactly where you are at any given time. Okay, maybe not exactly, but you feel like you do, as if you’ve been living in Berlin for years.

    This, coupled with just the right amount of description, action and twists, led to a fantastic read that I’m proud to add to my collection. And if Blake were to write another thriller, I would surely add it too, although I’m confident that any genre by this author would sit perfectly on my shelf.
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  • James Kemp
    5.0 out of 5 stars Nice to see an old man winning!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 19, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    A Young Man's Game by Paul Blake is an excellent debut novel with loads of twists and turns as Alec Foster uncovers a plot to assassinate the British PM in Berlin and avoids being picked up by the Berlin police, the Russian SVR and the would-be assassins. It's further complicated by the revelation of a traitor inside MI6 in the Embassy.

    Alec is a relic of the cold war, a former field officer, who has been promoted away from what he lived for to a desk job, an SIS section head in the British Embassy in Berlin. Personal tragedies have turned him into an alcoholic. So he's out of practice, and very much out of shape when tipped into the maelstrom by the murder of an SVR officer he's meeting.

    The brush with death, and the avoidance of being picked up through Berlin, gives Alex time to think, and A Young Man's Game is as much a story of Alex's redemption as it is a modern day espionage thriller. Having cut himself off after losing people he loved Alec realises that he needs people. He revisits old friends from his days as Stefan, the field officer.

    Follow the Action
    A Young Man's Game is set in 2017 Berlin, some of which I recognise from a recent holiday in Berlin. You can follow the action street by street (if you open a map while you are reading you can see the looping and circuitous routes Alec takes to avoid being followed). It's not the clean tourist version of Berlin, there's an underside, and you can really put yourself there in the same as with the classic cold war spy thriller.

    The story is properly littered with some red herrings, and also some surprising twists. It's an easy read, and a compelling one. I finished it really quickly, and read the last hundred pages while the TV was on because I wanted to know how it finished. I also wanted to know whether Alec was going to survive it, and whether his redemption would last intact. No spoilers though, you need to go read it yourself if you want to know...
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  • Webslinger
    5.0 out of 5 stars A fast-paced, well-crafted page turner!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 9, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    Not my usual genre, but this book really pulled me in! The concept really appealed to me. I loved the authors attention to detail, the research into Berlin really shines throughout! To the point that I'm fairly certain I could use this book to navigate the city.

    I also really dig how the author removes the traditional mystery and romanticism of being a spy and makes it feel like just another day job.

    Alec ia a wonderful protagonist, and his dual personas flare beautifully dependant on the situation he's in. Tripping over himself when he needs to engage in a genuine social situation, and yet able the access his muscle memory of how to survive in the field. The age of the character isn't so much played for laughs either, though there is certainly that side to Alec. It's more a genius way for the odds to be stacked against him. As the new generation of the underworld claim the modern age as their own.

    A fantastic debut, and definitely an author to keep an eye on in the future.
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  • dean tongue
    5.0 out of 5 stars Very good!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 12, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    I really enjoyed this book about an ageing spy. Alec Foster is my kind of guy. Could he beat Jason Bourne in a fist fight? Hell no. Could he drink him under the table? More than likely!

    I liked Alec's flaws. Borderline alcoholic, past his prime and ignorant to new technology. So when he is thrust back into the field, this out of practice spy has to use his brain rather than brawn to outwit his new foes. He always feels like the underdog so the sense of danger is very real. Constantly coming up against younger, stronger enemies he really does have to work hard to survive.

    I really like the vivid descriptions of the streets of Berlin, it added an authenticity to the proceedings and I almost feel like I know the streets like the back of my hand now. I even found myself googling some of the locations that Alec visited or passed.

    A satisfying read with some genuine surprises. There's a very professional feel about the whole book and I really do recommend it. A fantastic debut, well done Paul!
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