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Author: Wilson, Edward

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Published on 4 August 2022 by Quercus Publishing (MacLehose Press) in the United Kingdom as part of ‘the William Catesby’ series.

Paperback | 384 pages
130 x 197 x 33 | 266g

A captivating spy thriller taking the reader from 60s sex scandals to the Vietnam War, by a former special forces officer who is ‘poised to inherit the mantle of John le Carre’ ‘Edward Wilson seems poised to inherit the mantle of John le Carré’ Irish Independent’More

George Smiley than James Bond, Catesby will delight those readers

looking for less blood and more intelligence in their spy thrillers’ Publishers WeeklyLondon, 1957. Lady Somers is beautiful, rich and the first woman to head up the Ministry of Defence. She also has something to hide.

Catesby’s job is to uncover her story and bury it forever. His quest leads him through the sex scandals of Swinging-Sixties London and then on to Moscow, where a shocking message changes everything.

His next mission is a desperate hunt through the war-torn jungles of Southeast Asia, where he finally makes a heart-breaking discovery that is as personal as it is political. It’s a secret that Catesby may not live to share.

‘Espionage and geopolitical history rewritten by Evelyn Waugh’ Sunday Times’We attempt to second-guess both Catesby and his crafty creator, and are soundly outfoxed at every turn’ Barry Forshaw, Independent’This cynically complex plot is laid over perfectly described settings, from London to Moscow to Vietnam. Wilson’s characters and their consciences come alive to lend the book its power’ Kirkus ReviewsPraise for Edward Wilson: ‘Stylistically sophisticated . . . Wilson knows how to hold the reader’s attention’ W.G. Sebald’A reader is really privileged to come across something like this’ Alan Sillitoe’All too often, amid the glitzy gadgetry of the spy thriller, all the

fast cars and sexual adventures, we lose sight of the essential

seriousness of what is at stake. John le Carré reminds us, often, and so does Edward Wilson’ Independent