Overview

Croft's moral wilderness and compilation of treachery ring far truer than the glamour of James Bond. And the clash between romance, personal loyalty, and institutional duplicity bears the stamp of one who knows.-Publishers Weekly Retired-journalist-turned-MI6-agent Michael Vaux made his debut in The Wayward Spy. Now, in the fourth Vaux thriller, he returns for another Middle Eastern adventure. Vaux is at loose ends after his longtime girlfriend, Anne, leaves to care for her ailing father. But on Vaux's first night alone, an old colleague from B3-a maverick subgroup of MI6-shows up at his cottage door. Someone in Beirut has unmasked dozens of MI6 agents and assets in the Middle East, endangering their lives and missions. Vaux is ordered out of semiretirement to find the traitor and stop the leaks. As Vaux goes deep undercover in Lebanon, he realizes that the field office is full of power players with their own agendas. In a city reeling from civil war and in an agency at odds with itself, Vaux needs to determine whom he can trust with his secrets. But if he makes one wrong move, he may never see Anne again.