{"product_id":"stone-the-crows-vaughan-humphries-9798183717839","title":"Stone the Crows: Beneath the Surface","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSome systems don't need to be run.\u003cbr\u003eThey only need to be left alone.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTom Harding has stopped asking what he's for.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Rural Outreach Committee no longer requires him in Thame. His desk has moved to an anonymous office in West London, his title has become a formality, and the language he spent time shaping now circulates without him - through councils, consultations, and committees that have long since stopped wondering where it came from. Nothing has collapsed. Nothing has been exposed. If anything, the system runs more smoothly in his absence than it ever did with him in the room.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat is the part Tom can't quite get past.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs scrutiny finally arrives - measured, procedural, entirely survivable - old certainties start to come apart in the politest possible way. Julian explains too much. Theodore explains too little, and then, too late, exactly enough. A name on a circulation list confirms what Tom has spent months refusing to add up. And in the quieter rooms of his life - a friend behind a bar who isn't himself, an ex-girlfriend back from the other side of the world, a vinyl figure that has followed him through three desks and two cities - Tom starts to notice what continuation has cost him, and what, if anything, is still his to keep.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eStone the Crows: Beneath the Surface is the concluding movement of a literary espionage trilogy about legitimacy, continuity, and the quiet machinery that keeps institutions running long after anyone remembers deciding they should. It is a story about competence as a liability, usefulness as a kind of erosion, and the difference between being relied upon and being free.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNothing fails.\u003cbr\u003eNothing is confessed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut for the first time, Tom has to decide what he's willing to stop doing well.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Vaughan Humphries\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798183717839\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/28\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 412\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.21lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.84d","brand":"Vaughan Humphries","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":49173993226495,"sku":"9798183717839","price":16.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_5a4232c0-6f90-486d-b115-edeeea33cef6.jpg?v=1788957324","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/stone-the-crows-vaughan-humphries-9798183717839","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}