'Breathless suspense ... taut action ... manages to achieve depth as a novel without ever letting up its adventurous pace ... A grand book for every le Carre reader' The New York Times Book Review

'Breathless suspense ... taut action ... manages to achieve depth as a novel without ever letting up its adventurous pace ... A grand book for every le Carre reader' The New York Times Book Review

Lewis Cane fought with the French Resistance during the Second World War and gained a justified reputation as a tough and resourceful man. So it's no great surprise when one of his ex-Resistance comrades, now a successful lawyer in the early 1960s in Paris employs him to escort a businessman from Brittany to Liechtenstein for a crucial meeting.

There are just two problems: the man's associates don't want him to get there, and the police have a warrant out for the man's arrest on a charge of rape. For Cane, it becomes a desperate race across France, fighting against resourceful and ruthless adversaries and avoiding the forces of law and order every step of the way ...