Gerald Seymour – författare

*** A The Times Best Novels Since 1945 ***One of the 100 best crime novels and thrillers written since 1945, as chosen by the Sunday TimesA British cabinet minister is gunned down on a London street by an IRA assassin. In the wake of national outcry, ill-prepared and poorly briefed, undercover agent Harry Brown is sent into the heart of enemy territory to infiltrate the terrorists. Harry's Game rewrote the crime fiction genre when it was first published in 1975 and was an instant global bestseller. Gerald Seymour is one of the most respected thriller writers in the world, drawing on his extensive experience as a journalist covering war zones and political hotspots to deliver authentic, morally complex and utterly gripping spy novels.'Vibrant with suspense' Evening Standard'Evokes the atmosphere and smell of the back streets of Belfast as nothing else I have ever read' Frederick Forsyth, Sunday Express'Devastatingly good' Spectator'The most enduringly praised Troubles thriller' Guardian'Edge-of-the-seat reading' Washington Post'The sort of book that makes you lose track of time' The New York Times

THE TARGET: Israel's leading nuclear scientist, giving a lecture in London.THE ASSASSIN: A Palestinian terrorist, the lone survivor of a three-man hit squad ambushed by Israeli Intelligence in France while on their way to London. THE MERCENARY: Ciaran McCoy, formerly of the IRA, and The Assassin's only contact in London. THE MAVERICK: Jimmy, an alcoholic, over-the-hill MI5 agent assigned to protect the Israeli scientist. Jimmy is arguably the most dangerous of the lot, but only when sober. Will he be able to prevent a brutal killing?

A thrilling classic from a master of the genre.In a wrecked Croat village, a mass grave is uncovered and the mutilated body of a young Englishwoman, Dorrie Mowat, is exhumed. Her mother, who loathed Dorrie in life, becomes obsessed by the need to find out about her death. But with civil war tearing apart the former Yugoslavia, none of the authorities there or in Britain are interested in a ‘minor’ war crime. So she turns to Bill Penn, private investigator, MI5 reject. For him this looks like a quick trip to safe Zagreb, the writing of a useless report and a good fee at the end of it. But once there he finds himself drawn inexorably towards the killing ground behind the lines, to find the truth of the young woman’s death and, perhaps, the truth of himself. Penn’s search for evidence that could, one day, convict a war criminal in a court of law becomes an epic journey into a merciless war where the odds are stacked high against him

A thrilling classic from a master of the genre.It is the last month before Iraq is to invade Kuwait, and Saddam Hussein has instructed his scientists to stop at nothing to arm his nation with nuclear warheads. As Frederick Bissett, a disaffected British weapons scientist, is on the point of seizing the Iraqi bait, the only man to stand in the way of a total collapse of the Middle Eastern military balance is a young FBI operative, Bill Erlich – a man who has just seen a close friend gunned down by a terrorist, though, and is hard on the heels of the assassin. As he blunders into the lines by which the Iraqi puppet-masters control their undercover agents in England, he is faced with a last and inevitable confrontation and recognises that he has gone beyond the point of recall: he is engaged in what his FBI training has taught him to call ‘Condition Black’, lethal assault in progress.

A modern classic from one of the great thriller writers of our era.McAnally had sworn his oath to the IRA. But he quit and went south into the Republic, until they came for him, made him fire the deadly rocket launcher one last time. Then he played his final card and most terrifying role – Supergrass. Ferris, the young British lieutenant, hadn’t wanted to join the Army. But a cruel twist of fate put him in the front line of a brutally tense war of nerves. He became the pawn in a game where the stakes were the entire command of the Belfast IRA. For these two men, enmeshed in Ulster’s centuries of turmoil, this was to become their Field of Blood.

Charlotte Parsons, a teacher from Devon, is sent to Sicily by the American Drug Enforcement Agency to infiltrate La Cosa Nostra and expose the heroin trade in this brilliantly crafted thriller.READ BY THE ACTOR BRIAN COX. Charlotte Parsons, a teacher from Devon, is sent to Sicily by the American Drug Enforcement Agency to infiltrate La Cosa Nostra and expose the heroin trade in this brilliantly crafted thriller.

When British businessman Geoffrey Harrison is kidnapped on the same day that Franca Tantardini, Italy’s most ruthless terrorist, is captured, there seems no reason why their destinies should become linked, until Franca’s teenage lover intervenes, kidnapping Harrison from his kidnappers, and straightforward extortion becomes political terrorism.Beautiful, seductive and extremely dangerous, Franca Tantardini is one of Italy''s most ruthless political extremists. When she is captured in a shoot-out, her fanatical young lover, Giancarlo Battestini, vows to set her free and, with quiet watchfulness, waits for the moment to strike. In Rome, a British businessman, Geoffrey Harrison, has been taken hostage by a ruthless organised crime syndicate – kidnap is, after all, a growth industry. The British Government are adamant that they will not pay the two-million-dollar ransom and discharge responsibility to the Italian police. As political wrangling takes hold, Battestini sees a weakness and realises that the only way to secure the release of his beloved Franca is to capture Harrison and bargain his life for hers. The authorities are confronted with a terrible choice. Should they release a woman who has masterminded the murder of so many or let an innocent man die?

A thrilling classic from a master of the genre.Thrown out of the SAS for insubordination, Gord Brown now lives in disillusioned exile on a failing salmon farm in the Scottish highlands. Yet to the three Guatemalan Indians who track him down, he represents the last hope of freedom. They have come to recruit a fighting man to lead an uprising against the brutal military dictatorship which is killing their people. Gord flies with them to Cuba, then on with a small band of men to a rough landing strip in the rainforest of Guatemala. As the ragged army marches through the jungle and across the hight mountains towards Guatemala City, a hopeless dream becomes a burning reality. But the forces pitted against them are formidable.

Arab terrorists plot the assassination of an eminent Israeli scientist when he visits London. The hit is to be carried out with IRA help, and, although the operation is compromised, the killers decide to continue. The British security services, and their Israeli counterparts, race against time to reach the killers before they reach their target.The target – Israel’s leading nuclear scientist on a visit to London. The assassins – An Arab terrorist, the only survivor of a three-man hit-squad ambushed by Israeli Intelligence in France but still an untried amateur, desperate to prove himself a killer. And McCoy, an IRA mercenary, who is to provide him with the weapons he needs and get him to his target. The tracker – A freelance working for British Intelligence. Jimmy is more lethal than any of them…but only when he’s sober.

A modern classic from one of the great thriller writers of our era.In the villages and on the mountains of County Tyrone, in the heartland of the Provisional IRA’s most active Brigade, the golden rule is ‘Hear nothing, see nothing, know nothing’. To collaborate with British Intelligence is to invite an inescapable death sentence. But there is word on the mountain that inside the Brigade there is a ‘tout’, an informer. He will be identified, interrogated, tortured, then hooded and shot. Gary Brennard, the MI5 field agent, and Parker, who runs the informer, have to protect their man at all costs: he is the critical asset to hold on to until the stakes are high enough…and if the innocent step into the crossfire, that’s just bad luck.

The arms dealer betrayed them. Now the survivors want revenge.SOMETIMES, surviving a war can almost seem worse than dying in it. In a Croatian village near Vukovar, no one who survived will ever forget the night they waited for the weapons they needed to make a last-ditch fight against the advancing Serbs. The promised delivery never came, and the village was overrun. Eighteen years later, a body is unearthed from a field, and with it the identity of the arms dealer who betrayed them. Now the villagers can plot their revenge. In leafy England, arms dealer Harvey Gillott regards himself as a man of his word. There is only one blemish on his record, and that was long ago. But Gillott, his family, his friends and his enemies are about to be pitched into a sequence of events that will unfold across Europe with breath-taking drama and almost biblical power. Harvey Gillott is about to find out what happens when the hand of the past suddenly reaches out to the present - and it's holding a gun.

Celebrated for his "palm-sweating tension" (The New York Times) and "rare insight" (The Plain Dealer), Gerald Seymour defines spy fiction at its best. Now, in this chilling revenge mission and haunting love story, he floodlights the East German Stasi as a young female British army corporal seeks retribution for Cold War atrocities. One frozen night, Tracy Barnes witnesses the killing of her lover by the East German secret police. Years later, when the Wall has crumbled and old enemies have become new friends, Tracy encounters the murderer and plans to make him pay. But in a country still at war with itself, Tracy finds that she is being played as a pawn in a far bigger game reaching all the way to Moscow.

On the Mongolian steppes a general in the People's Liberation Army stakes his career, and his life, on a GPS-free missile guidance system that will change the balance of power on the battlefield.In Bath a young Chinese woman has secured the affections of a young brainiac working on that very problem.In Leamington Spa a deep cover operative has given himself away.And in London Jonas Merrick watches all, assessing, planning. A moment, perhaps, for him to strike a blow to China's espionage network in the UK.One thing he does not see, however, is in Moscow. An order given: 'bring me his head'. Tautly plotted and frighteningly authentic The Best Revenge cements Jonas Merrick as one of the great figures of modern spy fiction.

On the Mongolian steppes a general in the People's Liberation Army stakes his career, and his life, on a GPS-free missile guidance system that will change the balance of power on the battlefield.In Bath a young Chinese woman has secured the affections of a young brainiac working on that very problem.In Leamington Spa a deep cover operative has given himself away.And in London Jonas Merrick watches all, assessing, planning. A moment, perhaps, for him to strike a blow to China's espionage network in the UK.One thing he does not see, however, is in Moscow. An order given: 'bring me his head'. Tautly plotted and frighteningly authentic The Best Revenge cements Jonas Merrick as one of the great figures of modern spy fiction.

On the Mongolian steppes a general in the People's Liberation Army stakes his career, and his life, on a GPS-free missile guidance system that will change the balance of power on the battlefield.In Bath a young Chinese woman has secured the affections of a young brainiac working on that very problem.In Leamington Spa a deep cover operative has given himself away.And in London Jonas Merrick watches all, assessing, planning. A moment, perhaps, for him to strike a blow to China's espionage network in the UK.One thing he does not see, however, is in Moscow. An order given: 'bring me his head'. Tautly plotted and frighteningly authentic Best Served Cold cements Jonas Merrick as one of the great figures of modern spy fiction.

'Compelling . . . almost Dickensian' Times'The best thriller writer in the world' Daily Telegraph*****Jonas Merrick - a legendary intelligence analyst for MI5 - has been banished to the Post Room of Thames House. There, he is expected to pass his remaining days before inevitable retirement.In a Russian gulag, an MI6 agent has developed an unlikely passion for a prisoner and has come up with an ingenious plan to free her. The key: a ruthless Albanian gang laundering the dirty money of the Russian elite. Merrick, the only agent with the experience to help, is brought back once again to intercept the Albanian courier until an exchange is organised by the Russians.But when it transpires that the courier is the heir of the criminal gang's leader, the danger mounts, and Merrick once again finds himself in a situation spiralling towards a bloody confrontation.Frighteningly topical and intensely plotted, Jonas Merrick - one of the great figures of modern spy fiction - returns

'Compelling . . . almost Dickensian' Times'The best thriller writer in the world' Daily Telegraph*****Jonas Merrick - a legendary intelligence analyst for MI5 - has been banished to the Post Room of Thames House. There, he is expected to pass his remaining days before inevitable retirement.In a Russian gulag, an MI6 agent has developed an unlikely passion for a prisoner and has come up with an ingenious plan to free her. The key: a ruthless Albanian gang laundering the dirty money of the Russian elite. Merrick, the only agent with the experience to help, is brought back once again to intercept the Albanian courier until an exchange is organised by the Russians.But when it transpires that the courier is the heir of the criminal gang's leader, the danger mounts, and Merrick once again finds himself in a situation spiralling towards a bloody confrontation.Frighteningly topical and intensely plotted, Jonas Merrick - one of the great figures of modern spy fiction - returns

'Compelling . . . almost Dickensian' Times'The best thriller writer in the world' Daily Telegraph*****Jonas Merrick - a legendary intelligence analyst for MI5 - has been banished to the Post Room of Thames House. There, he is expected to pass his remaining days before inevitable retirement.In a Russian gulag, an MI6 agent has developed an unlikely passion for a prisoner and has come up with an ingenious plan to free her. The key: a ruthless Albanian gang laundering the dirty money of the Russian elite. Merrick, the only agent with the experience to help, is brought back once again to intercept the Albanian courier until an exchange is organised by the Russians.But when it transpires that the courier is the heir of the criminal gang's leader, the danger mounts, and Merrick once again finds himself in a situation spiralling towards a bloody confrontation.Frighteningly topical and intensely plotted, Jonas Merrick - one of the great figures of modern spy fiction - returns

The Metropolitan Police have an unsolvable problem: 'Lachy' Wilson is a ruthless and obscenely rich British drugs lord who has bought off dozens of their officers. Thanks to these informants, no one can lay a glove on Wilson and he is considered 'untouchable'.Wilson is dreaming of one last, game-changing shipment of heroin into the UK. The Met turn to the outside for help. Jonas Merrick is an MI5 officer, unspectacular in his own right but spectacular in the success he's had in dangerous counter terrorist operations. Can he thwart the drugs plot?Jonas has an ace in the hole: Kenny 'Chopper' Harris is an ex-paratrooper and soon to be ex-member of the Flying Squad, looking for a new home, new loyalties. Jonas recruits him to get close to Wilson's Achilles's heel: Julie Wilson is the heir apparent to the family drugs empire and Lachy's go-between. Julie, like Chopper, is a lost soul - she dreams of life outside her father's brutal orbit. Her fate is about to change at their first meeting. A bond is formed, a resolution is made: Chopper will get her free of her family, if she'll betray her mission.Soon their desperate game of deception begins - a game which will inevitably end in a bloody denouement.

The Metropolitan Police have an unsolvable problem: 'Lachy' Wilson is a ruthless and obscenely rich British drugs lord who has bought off dozens of their officers. Thanks to these informants, no one can lay a glove on Wilson and he is considered 'untouchable'.Wilson is dreaming of one last, game-changing shipment of heroin into the UK. The Met turn to the outside for help. Jonas Merrick is an MI5 officer, unspectacular in his own right but spectacular in the success he's had in dangerous counter terrorist operations. Can he thwart the drugs plot?Jonas has an ace in the hole: Kenny 'Chopper' Harris is an ex-paratrooper and soon to be ex-member of the Flying Squad, looking for a new home, new loyalties. Jonas recruits him to get close to Wilson's Achilles's heel: Julie Wilson is the heir apparent to the family drugs empire and Lachy's go-between. Julie, like Chopper, is a lost soul - she dreams of life outside her father's brutal orbit. Her fate is about to change at their first meeting. A bond is formed, a resolution is made: Chopper will get her free of her family, if she'll betray her mission.Soon their desperate game of deception begins - a game which will inevitably end in a bloody denouement.

The Metropolitan Police have an unsolvable problem: 'Lachy' Wilson is a ruthless and obscenely rich British drugs lord who has bought off dozens of their officers. Thanks to these informants, no one can lay a glove on Wilson and he is considered 'untouchable'.Wilson is dreaming of one last, game-changing shipment of heroin into the UK. The Met turn to the outside for help. Jonas Merrick is an MI5 officer, unspectacular in his own right but spectacular in the success he's had in dangerous counter terrorist operations. Can he thwart the drugs plot?Jonas has an ace in the hole: Kenny 'Chopper' Harris is an ex-paratrooper and soon to be ex-member of the Flying Squad, looking for a new home, new loyalties. Jonas recruits him to get close to Wilson's Achilles's heel: Julie Wilson is the heir apparent to the family drugs empire and Lachy's go-between. Julie, like Chopper, is a lost soul - she dreams of life outside her father's brutal orbit. Her fate is about to change at their first meeting. A bond is formed, a resolution is made: Chopper will get her free of her family, if she'll betray her mission.Soon their desperate game of deception begins - a game which will inevitably end in a bloody denouement.

Winnie Monks has never forgotten - or forgiven - the death of a young agent on her team at the hands of a former Russian Army Major turned gangster. Now, years later, she hears the Major is travelling to a villa on the Costa del Sol and she asks permission to send in a surveillance unit.They find an empty property near the Major's. The Villa Paraiso. It's perfect to spy from - and as a base for Winnie's darker, less official, plans.But it turns out that the property isn't deserted. The owners have invited a young British couple to 'house sit' while they are away.For Jonno and Posie, just embarking on a relationship, this is supposed to be a carefree break in the sun. But when the Secret Service team arrives in paradise, everything changes.

An Iranian soldier sits in an MI6 safe house.He may only be a corporal, but as chauffeur to a top general he knows many secrets, such as the location of nuclear sites.But the Corporal won't talk unless they bring his wife out of Iran, too.So the SAS are asked to do the job - but they say it's impossible.Which is how Zach Bennett, a university drop-out recruited for his language skills, and a rag-tag team of three ex-soldiers find themselves on a mission to Tehran. If they are caught, it will mean certain death.And the Corporal's wife - fiery, independent and beautiful - is not the kind of person Zach was expecting. In fact, she's not like anyone he's ever met in his life.

It was a dirty job in a dirty war.Danny Curnow, known in the army family by his call sign, Vagabond, ran agents, informers. Played God with their lives and their deaths, and was the best at his job - and he quit when the stress overwhelmed him.Now he lives in quiet isolation and works as a guide to tourists visiting the monuments and cemeteries of an earlier, simpler, conflict on Normandy's D-Day beaches.Until the call comes from an old boss, Bentinick.Violence in Northern Ireland is on the rise again. Weapons are needed for a new campaign. Gaby Davies of MI5, sparky and ambitious, runs the double agent Ralph Exton, who will be the supposed middle man in brokering an arms deal with a Russian contact, Timofey.The covert world of deception and betrayal was close to destroying Danny across the Irish Sea. Fifteen years later the stakes are higher, the risks greater, and there is an added agenda on the table. If he wants to survive, Danny will have to prove, to himself, that he has not softened, that he is as hard and ruthless as before.VAGABOND shows Gerald Seymour writing at the top of his powers and returning to the territory of some of his greatest bestsellers, Harry's Game, Field of Blood and The Journeyman Tailor.

Two young men -Jago and Marcantonio - both studying business and finance:Jago is a kid from a rough part of London who has worked hard to get a job in a bank and is now on a fast-track secondment to the Berlin office.Marcantonio is one of the new generation in the 'Ndrangheta crime families from Calabria, Southern Italy. He is in Germany to learn how to channel their illicit millions towards legitimate businesses all over Europe.When Jago witnesses Marcantonio commit a vicious assault and the police seem uninterested, the Englisman refuses to let the matter drop.But by pursuing the gangster to his grandfather's mountain lair, Jago is stepping into the middle of a delicate surveillance operation, which sets alarm bells ringing in Rome, London and Berlin.It also leads him to Consolata, a young woman who sees in Jago the chance to turn her non-violent protest campaign against the crime families into something altogether more lethal...NO MORTAL THING is novel of relentless power and mounting suspense, a brilliant portrayal of organised crime in Europe and the under-resourced men and women who fight it.

Two young men - Jago and Marcantonio - both studying business and finance:Jago is a kid from a rough part of London who has worked hard to get a job in a bank and is now on a fast-track secondment to the Berlin office.Marcantonio is one of the new generation in the 'Ndrangheta crime families from Calabria, Southern Italy. He is in Germany to learn how to channel their illicit millions towards legitimate businesses all over Europe.When Jago witnesses Marcantonio commit a vicious assault and the police seem uninterested, the Englishman refuses to let the matter drop.But by pursuing the gangster to his grandfather's mountain lair, Jago is stepping into the middle of a delicate surveillance operation, which sets alarm bells ringing in Rome, London and Berlin.It also leads him to Consolata, a young woman who sees in Jago the chance to turn her non-violent protest campaign against the crime families into something altogether more lethal...NO MORTAL THING is novel of relentless power and mounting suspense, a brilliant portrayal of organised crime in Europe and the under-resourced men and women who fight it.

A group of four students, Ukrainian Jews, are fighting for recognition within the Soviet Union. They are tired of being treated as second-class citizens and are prepared to use violence if necessary. When one of their number is captured after shooting a policeman, they know time is running out. Their only hope is to hijack a plane, fly to the West and then on to Israel.One country after another refuses to let them land, untill the plane finally sets down in Britain, low on fuel. Charlie Webster, an Intelligence officer on the Soviet desk, is brought in to negotiate with the hijackers. But it is unclear whether they are political refugees or dangerous criminals. As the government wavers, the students become increasingly desperate and start to lose patience, and control.

Beautiful, seductive and extremely dangerous, Franca Tantardini is one of Italy's most ruthless political extremists. When she is captured in a shoot-out, her fanatical young lover, Giancarlo Battestini, vows to set her free and, with quiet watchfulness, waits for the moment to strike.In Rome, a British businessman, Geoffery Harrison, has been taken hostage by a ruthless organised crime syndicate - kidnap is, after all, a growth industry. The British Government are adamant that they will not pay the two-million-dollar ransom and discharge responsibility to the Italian police. As political wrangling takes hold, Battestini sees a weakness and realises that the only way to secure the release of his beloved Franca is to capture Harrison and bargain his life for hers.The authorities are confronted with a terrible choice. Should they release a woman who has masterminded the murder of so many or let an innocent man die?