Sam Guthrie is the author of the bestselling political thriller The Peak, winner of Spybrary’s 2025 Debut Golden Mole and shortlisted for both the UK Crime Writers’ Association’s John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger and Australia’s Ned Kelly Award for Best Debut Crime Fiction. His second novel, The Asset, is forthcoming from HarperCollins in 2027.

His fiction draws on more than twenty-five years working at the intersection of geopolitics, diplomacy and corporate power. A former senior government official and diplomat, Guthrie has served as a trade envoy to China and advised governments and major corporations on international strategy, political risk and geopolitical change. He has worked extensively across Europe, the United States and Asia.

Guthrie writes character-driven political thrillers exploring how ambition, loyalty and moral compromise collide with the machinery of state power. Drawing on first-hand experience of international negotiations and political systems, his novels examine the private desires and hidden dealings that shape public events.

He holds a master’s degree in international relations and lives in Sydney, Australia.