The Devil's Bargain

Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022. Good secondhand copy.

The first standalone spy thriller from Stella Rimington, former head of MI5 and author of the bestselling Liz Carlyle series - for fans of le Carre, Mick Herron and The Night Manager Harry Bristow: policeman, father, chauffeur, fraud. In 1988 Harry made one mistake: he took a bribe, letting a man he knew as Igor into Britain - and he's regretted it ever since. So when he recognises 'Igor' fifteen years later as his newly-elected MP, he knows he has to come clean. But the MP recognises him too - and Harry fears what he might do next. Peter Robinson, MP: salesman, politician, bachelor, spy. It was easy to get into Britain in 1988 as an illegal, working deep undercover, but the break-up of the Soviet Union cut Robinson off from his homeland. He's inching closer to Britain's levers of power - but now the one man who knows his secret has reappeared. With no way to contact Moscow, he must act fast to preserve his position and reap its rewards - at any cost. Manon Bradley, CIA analyst, has just stepped on a plane to London - with a paper on Russian illegals to read.