Cover

Praise

Praise for

‘A lethally addictive blend of domestic suspense and hard-driving thriller. Set aside some time for this one – you won't be able to put it down’

A.L. GAYLIN

‘A cracking book – funny, thrilling, touching. It’s as if mum-lit was on crack with shades of Killing Eve. This is a thrilling, original and funny read which takes spy fiction to a new level. I loved it’

CLAIRE ALLAN

‘I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!!! It’s so new and different and refreshing and I found it such fun (also loved the feminist message)’

MARIAN KEYES

‘A riotously fun read . . . James Bond should retire now: Lex Tyler shows him up for the tired, old has-been he is. With prose as sharp as her heroine’s (actual) killer heels, Asia Mackay puts the sass in assassin as it’s never been done before’

L. S. HILTON

‘An annoyingly brilliant and funny first novel’

HUGH GRANT

‘This might be the best fun I’ve ever had reading a book. Funny, observant and proper adrenaline inducing thrills, I now solely aspire to be even half the woman Lex Tyler is. A badass with a baby: every mother’s dream’

GEORGIA TENNANT

‘Witty . . . fun . . . clever. BRILLIANT!’

SOPHIE ELLIS-BEXTOR

‘An urgently contemporary, kick-ass action heroine for our times. Lex Tyler is the ultimate female trail-blazer: as dextrous with a breast pump as she is with a gun. We’re so excited to be going on a thrilling action adventure with Lex, to cinematise her battle with returning to work, trying to take care of a young baby and, of course, trying to save the country . . .’

RORY AITKEN

‘What new mother can’t relate to murder? This is the funny and thrilling story of how one woman does what all women do all the time – manage every single thing. Brilliant’

ARABELLA WEIR

‘Fresh and fun, and adroitly combines social and parenting comedy with detail-rich derring-do’

SUNDAY TIMES

‘Dark humour, a twisty plot and a healthy dose of genuine emotion . . . a thrilling ride’

HEAT MAGAZINE

‘Move over James Bond – Alexis Tyler proves that women really can do it all. Bring on the next mission.’

THE SUN

Dedication

For Trotts

You’re fun, funny and mine

I feel lucky, I really do

But when you say I have PMT

I really want to kill you

X

Prologue

‘GET DOWN! GET DOWN!’ I shout at the man in front of a dilapidated warehouse, as I pull up opposite him in a black van. He ducks to the ground just as a stream of bullets tear up the wall where he had just been standing.

‘Your cover’s blown.’

Another shot rings out.

‘Lex? That you?’ comes the muffled shout from behind a four-foot-high carefully ordered pile of wooden planks. We are at an old deserted gasworks in East London. Building work had stalled last year due to a bankrupted building company and retracted permissions.