A Line in the Sand - 1999

Summary
In a village on the Suffolk coast. Frank Perry waits for his past to arrive. A decade before he spied for the Government on the Iranian chemical and biological weapon installations. His information damaged their killing capacity for years.
Now, Iran will have its revenge and has dispatched their most deadly assassin to fulfil the task. Codenamed the Anvil, he will move with stealth towards his chosen objective unless Perry's protectors can reach him first.

As he draws nearer, the ring of steel around Perry grows tighter. But against a faceless adversary, and with the job fatally compromised by the stifling political bureaucracy surrounding it, there seems little chance that the past will not have its day once more...

Extract
"It's all in the pamphlet - what we call the Blue Book, because it's blue. Vary your route to and from your home, keep a constant watch for strangers whom your may suspect of showing a particular interest in the house. You haven't a garage, I see. Car parked on the street, that's a problem. Well, you look like a handyman, get an old car wing-mirror, lash it to a bamboo pole and check under the car each morning, under the main chassis and especially that naughty hidden bit above the wheels, doesn't take a moment. Imagine anywhere under the car, or under the bonnet, where you could hide a pound bag of sugar, it's military explosive, and a pound of that stuff will destroy the car, with a mercury tilt switch. Always best to be careful and do the checks, it doesn't take a minute."

Reviews
'Brilliantly written and deserving of the Booker prize, if only it wasn't so populist'
MAIL ON SUNDAY

'Gripping momentum...Depth of characterisation, wealth of colour and detail, and precision of prose...New vintage stuff'
THE TIMES

'Brilliantly crafted'
SUNDAY TIMES

Customer Review
"This was a strange book, in that I was gripped by it for pretty much all but the last few pages. There is little in the way of action, but this is not an issue as characterisation is good and the prose excellent. The plot is actually very slow, but the characters that adorn it flesh the story out considerably, from the policemen protecting Frank Perry, to the intelligence officers and the assassin himself."