"Guthrie’s prose hums with the kind of insider dread that makes ASIO interns sweat through their chinos."
'Rewrites the script for spy fiction in the 21st century' Nigel Inkster, former director for operations and intelligence for MI6.
Review by Nick Day
Sam Guthrie’s The Peak is more than a gripping political thriller—it is a provocative and timely reflection on Australia’s precarious place in a shifting global order. Set over a single breathless day, the novel follows Charlie Westcott, a seasoned political operative, as he unravels the consequences of a cryptic Mandarin phrase uttered by his lifelong friend and rising government minister, Sebastian Adler.
The novel’s deceptively simple structure masterfully interweaves vivid recollections of Charlie’s and Sebastian’s elite school days, revealing a world of privilege, cruelty, and formative trauma. These scenes are the emotional scaffolding of the novel, showing how early power dynamics shape adult decisions and betrayals; and it is in these moments of reflection that Guthrie’s characters become the most vulnerable, most human.
Guthrie’s prose is lean, precise and occasionally lyrical, allowing space for Charlie’s emotional disorientation to surface amid the chaos. The novel’s settings—Hong Kong, Beijing, Canberra—are rendered with a journalist’s meticulous eye for detail and a novelist’s sensitivity to atmosphere. Guthrie’s background in diplomacy lends the narrative its authenticity, but it is his emotional intelligence that elevates the work.
In the tradition of John le Carré, Guthrie uses the world of espionage as a lens to examine the fragility of human connection, revealing how even the most intimate bonds can be undone by the machinery of state power. His characters are not merely players in a geopolitical drama; they are men shaped by memory, undone by ambition, and caught in the quiet desperation of a nation uncertain of its place in the world.
And here, the story behind the story becomes impossible to ignore. Guthrie, once a senior figure in Australia’s diplomatic corps, resigned from his government post following the release of The Peak. The novel’s uncanny parallels to real-world political dynamics—its insider knowledge of China, its portrayal of covert intelligence operations, and its morally ambiguous characters—sparked controversy in Canberra. Was this fiction, or a veiled exposé? Guthrie has remained circumspect, insisting the book is a work of imagination. Yet the tension between truth and invention lingers, adding a layer of intrigue that mirrors the novel’s own themes.
The timing of The Peak’s publication is especially significant. Arriving amid the Australian Prime Minister’s high stakes visit to China, with a meeting with the American President still undetermined, this diplomatic choreography underscores Guthrie’s interest in Australia’s strategic vulnerability, its dependence on foreign powers, and the uncertainty of a nation’s leaders caught between conflicting allegiances.
What lingers after the final page of the novel is not just the tension of its plot, but the suggestion that fiction can be a form of reckoning. The novel’s emotional core—one man’s dawning realisation that the person he trusted most may have been playing a different game all along—feels less like invention and more like a coded confession. In a world where a single whispered phrase can unravel alliances, and where the line between diplomacy and betrayal is perilously thin, Guthrie’s story reads as both a warning and a release. It is possible, perhaps even likely, that the novel’s most explosive moment is a fictional echo of something real—an event witnessed, felt, or feared. And in choosing to tell it this way, Guthrie has done what few in Canberra dare—he’s told the truth, just not out loud.
Other Reviews
'Will there be a showdown between China and the west? The answer thrills - and chills - in Sam Guthrie's addictive tale of how human passion and geopolitical intrigue might bring doomsday closer.' Professor Rana Mitter, Harvard Kennedy School
'Sam Guthrie is a born writer - this is a cracking thriller' Dervla McTiernan, What Happened to Nina?
'A confident, explosive debut from an author sure to be the next big thing in the Australian thriller landscape.' Laura McCluskey, The Wolf Tree
'Wow! A superb novel ... gripping from the get-go and chillingly real; a must read for fans of Le Carre and a terrifying glimpse into the very near future.' Steve Lewis, Secret City
'The Peak is a classy and very clever contemporary thriller. There's an intriguing global dimension to the plot, which feels particularly apposite and accurate in these troubled and unsettling times.' Alex Gerlis, The Best of Our Spies
'A twisty political thriller that asks if it's possible to really ever know your friends ... taut and fast' Alma Katsu, Red London
