Operation Roadrunner

In a city of secrets, a daring heist to steal a scientist could ignite a new, cold war - and cost one spy everything. Based on a true story.

The war is over. Old allies become new rivals. As hot war turns to cold, a British spy in Washington D.C. hatches an audacious plot to snatch a renowned nuclear scientist from the top-secret Los Alamos facility in New Mexico. Idealistic young assistant Naval Attaché Tom Davis is recruited to spirit away the scientist from under the noses of both the FBI and their Soviet rivals. An unexpected love emerges, overshadowed by Tom's growing fear that his idolised friend and mentor may be a double agent. Tom must cut through a tangled web of deceit to determine whom he can trust and where his own loyalties lie as he finds his career, reputation and even his life in jeopardy.

From the Foreword by Sir Mark Lyall Grant GCMG, former UK National Security Adviser
Operation Roadrunner is an enthralling spy thriller inspired by the remarkable true story of British graduates recruited at Cambridge University in the 1930s to work covertly for the Soviet Union. Drawing on the personal experience of their uncle, Victoria Stevens and Jill Rose have spun a gripping tale of espionage, centered around Lieutenant Tom Davis RNVR of the British Embassy in Washington and set in the tense post World War 2 period.

Endorsements
'Part spy thriller, part contemporary satire, part whodunnit with a dead body in the first sentence, Operation Roadrunner succeeds on all levels. The fact that it was originally written by someone who served with Donald Maclean in the British Embassy in Washington during the Second World War makes this an interesting historical document as well as a very satisfying novel. It has the taut feel of an Eric Ambler thriller mixed with the authentic period dialogue of Somerset Maugham's Willie Ashenden spy series.' - Andrew Roberts, author: 'Churchill: Walking with Destiny'

Novel Background
In late 1942, Lieutenant Richard Miles RNVR, was posted to the British Embassy in Washington DC. After the war he was an adviser to the British Delegation to the United Nations and adviser to the UN Atomic Energy Commission. One of his colleagues was Donald Maclean, one of the so-called Cambridge Five, who at the time was Secretary of the Anglo-American-Canadian Policy Committee on atomic energy matters. Some twenty years after Richard's death, his nieces Jill and Victoria obtained the manuscript of an unpublished roman à clef he had written inspired by his acquaintance with the infamous spy. They edited, revised and reworked the drafts, while retaining the story and the spirit of their uncle's work. The result is Operation Roadrunner.

About the authors
A UCL graduate, Jill has lived in Canada, Washington, and Hawaii, and has travelled extensively world-wide. She now lives in Florida. Her 2018 book Nursing Churchill was praised by Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a "very valuable and unique insight" and by historian Andrew Roberts as "fine scholarship". Victoria Stevens has lived in Devon, UK, for many years. She has degrees in Classics and English, and has pursued a career teaching those subjects at secondary and university level. She travels regularly to Southern Africa, especially Botswana, and is writing a collection of short stories set in that country.