March 1947. India is poised on the verge of Independence and Partition. Lahore and Delhi are roiling under Jinnah’s call for direct action the previous year. Amid riots and mounting communal tension, a plan has been set afoot to assassinate Nehru—and Gandhi, if possible. And it’s up to secret agent Kimball O’Hara to foil it.

There is more mayhem that he will need to ward off. British officer Sir Denys Bromley-Pugh, a Nazi sympathizer, will stop at nothing to detonate a bomb at a Congress rally set to be addressed by Nehru. If he succeeds, instead of one, there will be dozens of partitions all over the country. Kim finds himself tangled in an elaborate game of disguise, bait, and patience to hack into Bromley-Pugh’s mind and halt the destruction of India.

In this sequel to Rudyard Kipling’s Kim, award-winning author Stephen Alter brings to life an older, wiser version of the mischievous young hero. Employed by the Imperial Secret Service, Kim is a shapeshifting agent slipping in and out of disguise— Indian one moment and an English sahib the next; now a horse trader, then a sanyasi.

Visceral in its intensity, The Greatest Game is a thrilling adventure featuring an unforgettable hero during the fraught run-up to Independence in India.