Blacklist

Blaines #2

by Andrew Taylor

During the bleak closing decade of the Cold War, there is no sign of a thaw between the opposing powers of East and West. But what if there is a common threat, which can only be faced with a common response? Unless, of course, the common threat itself is an illusion created by one of the players in the intelligence game.But someone, for some reason, is blackmailing key members of the intelligence community on both sides of the Iron Curtain. And people are dying - in violent circumstances. Coincidence? If not, what is the common link uniting the different cases?Eric Blaines, the dyspeptic trouble-shooter from the Ministry of Defence, is the only man who can find the answer. But to do so he must confront the ghosts in his own past.“As Andrew Taylor triumphantly proves . . . there is still room for excellence.” – Irish Times“Eye-blinking finale and a refreshing air of being plotted on the hoof.“ – The GuardianAndrew Taylor’s 30-plus novels include the bestseller, The American Boy, chosen by The Times as one of the top ten crime novels of the decade; the Roth Trilogy (filmed for TV as Fallen Angel); the Lydmouth Series; Bleeding Heart Square; The Anatomy of Ghosts, shortlisted for Theakston’s best crime novel of the year; and The Scent of Death (February 2013).His most recent awards are the CWA Diamond Dagger and Sweden’s Martin Beck Award. He is The Spectator’s crime fiction reviewer. Further www.andrew-taylor.co.uk and on twitter @andrewjrtaylor.

228 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 26, 1988

About the author

Andrew Taylor (b. 1951) is a British author of mysteries. Born in East Anglia, he attended university at Cambridge before getting an MA in library sciences from University College London. His first novel, Caroline Miniscule (1982), a modern-day treasure hunt starring history student William Dougal, began an eight-book series and won Taylor wide critical acclaim. He has written several other thriller series, most notably the eight Lydmouthbooks, which begin with An Air That Kills (1994).

His other novels include The Office of the Dead (2000) and The American Boy (2003), both of which won the Crime Writers’ Association of Britain’s Ellis Peters Historical Dagger award, making Taylor the only author to receive the prize twice. His Roth trilogy, which has been published in omnibus form as Requiem for an Angel (2002), was adapted by the UK’s ITV for its television show Fallen Angel. Taylor’s most recent novel is the historical thriller The Scent of Death (2013).