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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

394 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

24 people are currently reading
62 people want to read

About the author

John Gardner

113 books179 followers
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.

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Community Reviews

5 stars
59 (40%)
4 stars
54 (36%)
3 stars
26 (17%)
2 stars
6 (4%)
1 star
1 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
Profile Image for wally.
3,661 reviews5 followers
October 9, 2017
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.
86 reviews2 followers
February 8, 2024
Better and better…

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.
Profile Image for Mike Hambrecht.
17 reviews
January 13, 2024
Big Herbie’s last adventure

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.
353 reviews11 followers
August 3, 2022
Superb

A really good espionage story full of hard boiled characters and a mixture of IRA and the middle East with a great extra treat of magicians
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews

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