Even in the era of glasnost a defector is worth having, especially if he is a senior computer specialist in Russian military intelligence. But when the defection goes wrong, the British are left with three bodies and two inadequate clues to the nature of the information they might have been offered, and which now lies buried somewhere in the collective memories of David Audley and his one-time colleague Major Peter Richardson. But what is the secret Audley shares with the half-Italian Richardson, now frightened into hiding somewhere in Italy? For once David Audley has no idea and the race is on to find the elusive Major. But Audley's objective is fast being overtaken by modern political imperatives - ones very different from the black and white certainties of the old Cold War days . . .

A brilliant young electronics expert is killed by a car bomb seemingly meant for the head of the Foreign Office's Middle-Eastern Section. Intelligence officer Hugh Roskill is sent by David Audley on an investigation that takes him from London clubland to the Hampshire countryside, and deep into the complexities of Middle Eastern politics, to find the answer to two questions: who was the real target of the bomb? And what is Alamut? Against the backdrop of the Arab-Israeli conflict in the period before the Camp David Accords, Dr Audley and Colonel Butler are confronted with an assassin capable of turning the Middle Eastern conflict into Armageddon.

Winner of Britain’s Silver Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel of 1970 David Audley is an unlikely spy. True, he works for England’s Ministry of Defense, but strictly as a back-room man, doing meticulous research on the Middle East. This new assignment, then, comes as something of a surprise: A WWII-era British cargo plane has been discovered at the bottom of a drained lake, complete with the dead pilot and not much else. Why are the Soviets so interested in the empty plane and its pilot—interested enough to attend the much-belated funeral? And why has Audley been tapped to lead the investigation? As Audley chips away at the first question, he can’t stop asking the second. Could he possibly have been given the assignment in order to fail, to preserve the secrets at the bottom of the lake? If that’s the case, someone’s made an error. Audley’s a scholar by training, temperamentally allergic to loose ends. And the story he unravels is going to make some people very uncomfortable indeed.Review"Ingenious, exotic, and immensely enjoyable." --Times [of London] Literary Supplement"...combines haunting characterization, complex plot, history, international intrigue and pure detection to an extent rare in the genre." --Encyclopedia Mysteriosa About the AuthorBorn in Hertfordshire in 1928, Price was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and Oxford. His long career in journalism culminated in the Editorship of the Oxford Times. His 1970 debut, The Labyrinth Makers, won the CWA Silver Dagger; his hero, Dr David Audley, historian and spy, featured in this and 18 subsequent novels.

From Publishers WeeklyPrice's literate espionage novels (Here Be Monsters is the most recent) are of the cat-and-mouse variety, with an emphasis on mood, character and plot intricacy requiring more than a little patience. Those virtues are carried to a fault in this extremely slow-building and talky novel. Thomas Arkenshaw, a young British agent with experience in Beirut and other hot spots, is assigned as bodyguard to David Audley, a veteran intelligence officer who has been summoned to meet with high-ranking KGB officer Nikolai Panin. But before the two meet, Audley is shot at and one of his men is killed. Polish politics, double agents, internal rivalries and a beguiling female CIA agent all come into play in what is certainly a departure from the run-of-the-mill spy thriller. The snail's pace of the action, however, will deter all but the most devoted Price fan. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalIn this spy thriller enriched with scholarly and literary trivia, the plot hinges on interdepartmental rivalry in the British intelligence establishment. The rivalry is played out against a backdrop of Polish dissident groups and aging Soviet spies, and Price captures the essential isolation of spies from the real world and from any clear foreign policy goals. However, there's a lot of romantic nonsense about the Polish national character; one of the half-Polish British spooks, Sir Thomas Arkenshaw, is embroiled in a struggle between his stolid British and hot-blooded Polish genes. Nevertheless, the book is well written and has some good dialogue. Best of all, the bureaucrat who concocted that plot against his rivals finds it exploding in his face. Even in the spy world there's still some justice. Louise A. Merriam, L.E. Phillips Memorial P.L., Eau Claire, Wis.Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In the fourth title of Anthony Price's gripping spy series, British Intelligence officer David Audley slips away to Italy without authorisation, taking his wife with him. Immediately the suspicion arises that he may have defected, and the head of Italian security is also interested in his arrival, particularly as it has flushed from cover a rogue communist. But Audley has his own reasons for leaving Britain, in an investigation that becomes a matter of life or death.About the AuthorAnthony Price was born in Hertfordshire and educated at Oxford. His long career in journalism culminated in the editorship of the Oxford Times. He is the author of 19 novels and has won the CWA Silver and Gold Daggers.

In the rural peace of modern England a war game recreates the slaughter of the Civil War. But when the battle ends, a real corpse is left it the Swine Brook; and an aristocratic but impoverished revolutionary claims to have found a cache of 'Cromwell's Gold'. When David Audley is called in, seventeenth-century secrets and the deadly game of modern espionage clash in a brilliantly intricate thriller of bluff and counter-bluff.About the AuthorAnthony Price was born in Hertfordshire and educated at Oxford. His long career in journalism culminated in the editorship of the Oxford Times. He is the author of 19 novels and has won the CWA Silver and Gold Daggers.

An innocent enough advertisement, placed by General Maxwell, retired war hero and beloved squire of Duntisbury Royal, equally innocent hamlet nestled in the English countryside. But the results are explosive...Although it seems obvious that the IRA's stars are rising, there's a more global type of conspiracy in the country air. The CIA and the KGB are suddenly sniffing around, along with British Intelligence Chief Dr David Audley - whose intuition for mischief and espionage puts him right in the midst of the action.About the AuthorAnthony Price was born in Hertfordshire and educated at Oxford. His long career in journalism culminated in the editorship of the Oxford Times. He is the author of 19 novels and has won the CWA Silver and Gold Daggers.