Herbie Kruger is called out of retirement to investigate the death of Gus Keene, one of the best inquisitors ever employed by the British Secret Intelligence Service, and uncovers some disturbing facts about Keene's past and interest in magic
Before coming an author of fiction in the early 1960s, John Gardner was variously a stage magician, a Royal Marine officer and a journalist. In all, Gardner has fifty-four novels to his credit, including Maestro, which was the New York Times book of the year. He was also invited by Ian Fleming’s literary copyright holders to write a series of continuation James Bond novels, which proved to be so successful that instead of the contracted three books he went on to publish some fourteen titles, including Licence Renewed and Icebreaker.
Having lived in the Republic of Ireland, the United States and the UK, John Gardner sadly died in August of 2007 having just completed his third novel in the Moriarty trilogy, Conan Doyle’s eponymous villain of the Sherlock Holmes series.
8 oct 17, sunday evening, finished this one on the tree stand, 'bout a quarter after five, good story. i liked it. 3 stars. 1st from gardner for me, too, library loan, kindle.
I have come to love the Herbie Kruger series and will at some point re-read them all. They have the flair of Le Carré with the grit of Deighton and a touch of Ma’am Agatha!
This was something of a departure as a spy novel, I won’t say more because I don’t want to spike to plot for anyone, but there are more than a few surprises.
I have been fan of John Gardner since reading my first James Bond novel, Role of Honour. Later I learned he wrote other books as well. I eventually picked up the Secrets Trilogy, which led me to Herbie Kruger and I was hooked.