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Summary
Summary
SIS agent Peter Ashton faces his most dangerous case involving numerous threats to members of the agency, a senior member's blackmailing by an Islamic terrorist group, and the appearance of illicit chemical agents. 10,000 first printing.
Author Notes
Espionage thriller writer Clive (Frederick William) Egleton was born on November 25, 1927 and died in 2006.
Egleton was a Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army and was also involved in intelligence missions in Cyprus, the Persian Gulf, and East Africa.
His espionage thrillers include Seven Days to a Killing, A Killing in Moscow and Blood Money. His novel Seven Days to a Killing was filmed as The Black Windmill, starring Michael Caine. Escape to Athena is a novelization of the 1979 movie of the same name. Egleton also wrote under the names of Patrick Blake and John Tarrant.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
British veteran Egleton (One Man Running, etc.) is the pipe and slippers of the thriller trade, a great comfort after a day of dealing with flashier and more trendy stories. True, his material is somewhat dated (though published in the U.K. in 2002, this latest Peter Ashton novel refers to upcoming intelligence budget meetings for 1997-1998), and he's guilty of the occasional clich? (virtually all fights are "tooth and nail"). But Egleton's characters and settings are familiar and credible, and his tales of British SIS infighting and backstabbing usually ring true. Ashton, the newly appointed head of Eastern European intelligence, is learning new administrative skills. "Listen to me, Peter," says his boss, Sir Victor Hazelwood. "You're no longer a foot soldier; the days when you were the cutting edge have gone for good... Do I make myself clear?" Ashton bites the bullet and keep his upper lip as stiff as possible, delegating most of the investigation into the suspicious suicide of an agent in the Asian division to capable underlings. Meanwhile, Ashton's former flame, Jill Sheridan-who's risen to be Hazelwood's deputy director-finds herself drugged and starring in a porno movie in Miami. Of course, Ashton soon resumes his old cutting-edge persona, slicing through both messes with admirable skill. Egleton might not have the literary grace of a le Carr? or a Deighton, but his staying power, 28 novels and counting, is impressive. (Aug. 29) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
They've kicked him upstairs, sure, but superagent Peter Ashton hasn't lost a step. By no means is everyone in Britain's SIS (Secret Intelligence Service) an Ashton fan (One Man Running, 2002, etc.)--"loose cannon" is among the gentler detractions--but, come on, the man has saved Old Blighty from disaster more often than Henry V and Winston Churchill combined. So, belatedly and rather shamefacedly, they've given him a department: the Eastern European desk. As his boss, that "thruster" Victor Hazelwood, who knows how much of his Director Generalship is owed to Ashton's performance, privately acknowledges, "he hadn't always done right by the younger man." But almost before Ashton can get his chair warm, trouble and strife have the SIS family shaking and quaking. Blame it on that other stormy petrel, Jill Sheridan, who's even more ambitious than Victor Hazelwood. Once on the fast track to becoming SIS's first female Director General, she has recently stumbled, taken some vicious anti-collegial hits, endured some serious bureaucratic blindsiding. To rethink tactics--and lick wounds--she's opted for a bit of vacation time in the States in the hope of improved perspective. But once there, Jill, so often the exploiter, sees the tables turned: she's victimized and humiliated with embarrassing ease. Well and truly seduced--and drugged out of her mind--she awakes in a sleazy hotel room to find herself naked, in chains, the star of a porno film, and blackmailable to her eyeteeth. Ashton and Hazelwood huddle. No way any of this can have a thing to do with the Eastern European desk, Ashton insists. Maybe not, Hazelwood admits, but the situation's a mess--and messes are always going to be Ashton's business. Over the course of 31 outings, Egleton has proved that few can make reptilian bureaucratic intrigue as intriguing as he can. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
