The Kill Switch

Journalist Gil Peck has spent decades breaking stories about Britain's political elites, shining a light on the darkest corners of Whitehall.

But when the Prime Minister, Stella Barnsbury, collapses during an interview on his podcast he finds himself at the centre of the scoop.

Within 48 hours, the Prime Minister is dead. And when foul play is confirmed, Gil and his partner Jess - the last civilians to see Stella alive - become the prime suspects.

With everything on the line, Gil and Jess investigate the government's shadowy contract with a global tech giant - a deal that collapsed in the lead up to Stella's assassination. Was it just another government U-turn, motive for murder - or worse?

In a brave new world of megalomaniac technocrats, malevolent AI super-intelligence and cutting-edge brain implants, Gil must confront a deadly, age-old question: how far will some go in the name of progress . . . and profit?

Robert Peston is ITV's political editor, presenter of the politics show Peston , founder of the education charity, Speakers for Schools (www.speakers4schools.org), and vice president of Hospice UK. He has written four critically acclaimed non-fiction books, How Do We Fix This Mess? , Who Runs Britain? , Brown's Britain and his latest, WTF? , which was described by the Financial Times as 'mandatory reading' for anyone seeking to understand Brexit, Trump and the collapse of confidence in western liberalism. His first thriller, The Whistleblower , published by Zaffre, was 'brilliant' according to the Guardian and called 'a rollicking read' by the Evening Standard .
For a decade until the end of 2015, he was at the BBC, as economics editor and business editor, and in the 1990s he was at the Financial Times , as political editor, financial editor and head of investigations. At the BBC he played a prominent role in exposing the causes and consequences of the credit crunch, banking crisis and Great Recession. Peston has won more than 30 awards for his journalism, including Journalist of the Year and Scoop of the Year (twice) from the Royal Television Society. Find him on his blog at itv.com/robertpeston, on Facebook at facebook.com/pestonITV, and on Twitter @peston. He hosts a podcast with Steph McGovern, The Rest is Money .