The Empire of Night (Christopher Marlowe Cobb Thriller) - Softcover

Robert Olen Butler is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of fifteen novels, including Hell, A Small Hotel, and the Christopher Marlowe Cobb series. He is also the author of six short story collections and a book on the creative process, From Where You Dream. He has twice won a National Magazine Award in Fiction and received the 2013 F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Literature. He teaches creative writing at Florida State University.

[A] thrilling historical series. . . . Mr. Butler does a terrific job of depicting both the journalist’s facility for teasing information from his subjects and the spy’s incessant fear of being discovered. There’s something almost magical about the way the author re-creates this 1915 milieu.” Wall Street Journal

The Empire of Night is a cracking good spy thriller, with a cast of memorable characters and a terrifically suspenseful plot that will have you casting the movie as you read. And Butler’s elegant writing elevates the book he is a master of everything from lyrical description to believable dialogue.” Tampa Bay Times

The Empire of Night is a smart and layered yarn . . . propulsive reading . . . Butler has developed a knack for snapping off taut, Hammett-esque sentences at tense moments. . . . Butler is determined to show that genre fiction can be intellectually rich.” Star-Tribune (Minneapolis)

Butler combines fascinating historical detail about the pre-WWI period with genuine suspense and a tongue-in-cheek wit that gives the whole a uniquely tart flavor. The multilayered, adversarial relationship between Kit and Isabel grows more fascinating with each installment and will leave readers eager to learn more.” Booklist (starred review)

Exciting . . . the period details are spot on. . . . This tale of shifting allegiances and worldwide consequences enthralls.” Publishers Weekly

[An] elegant thriller. . . . A meticulously researched page-turner that will appeal to spy novel buffs and lovers of historical novels, as well as any general reader intrigued with the power struggles of World War I. If you’ve never read a novel by Butler one of the great stylists writing today you’re in for a treat with The Empire of Night.” Huntington News

Butler's continuous pressure on the suspense makes the novel a page-turning, nail-biting experience, and his use of short, crisp sentences magnifies the tension.” Readers Unbound

An engrossing thriller. Cobb’s traversal of the German countryside is tension-laden, and the finale wrongfoots with unexpected twists. Well-acted, center-stage entertainment.” Crime Book Beat

Deliciously captivating. . . . I can hardly wait for the next in the series.” Arab Voice