With The Private Sector (1971) Joseph Hone introduced readers to British intelligence officer Peter Marlow, who would be the protagonist of three further novels — all now reissued in Faber Finds.Cairo, May 1967: Marlow is sent from London to find his friend and fellow spy Henry Edwards, who has vanished. In the course of this fool’s errand he also finds his former wife, Bridget, now deeply entangled with Edwards. Marlow moves easily between British and Egyptian intelligence branches, attaching allegiance to neither — until he becomes the unwitting victim of a failed plot to topple Nasser.

‘An absolutely terrific espionage novel.’James Dickey

‘A brilliant and calculated spy story… [Hone’s] characters and the quality of the writing are so good that he has transcended the usual limitations of the genre.’Times Literary Supplement