Atropos

By William L. DeAndrea

An electric thriller where spies go to battle, and the free world is at stake.

In the final installment in William DeAndrea's Clifford Driscoll series, master spy Driscoll is 'going tame' -- that is, recovering from a near-death accident and enjoying domestic peace. Driscoll, now known as Allan Trotter, hasn't killed anyone in more than a year. He still works for the Agency -- a super-secret intelligence unit of the US government known only to the president and its founding congressman -- but he's too full of pins and plates to be a field agent anymore. To top it off, he's so smitten with beautiful media mogul Regina Hudson that he's contemplating settling down.

But Trotter's new life is rudely interrupted when he learns that Soviet spies are bent on taking charge of the upcoming US presidential election. Their instrument is an influential senator, Hank Van Horn, a womanizing bad seed who -- despite an upstanding reputation -- once murdered one of his own staffers. And as if the election plot wasn't perilous enough, Van Horn's relentless son, Mark, soon gets involved in a very bloody way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Head of Zeus
• Release date: Jun 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781784084035

William L. DeAndrea

William L. DeAndrea (1952–1996) was born in Port Chester, New York. While working at the Murder Ink bookstore in New York City, he met mystery writer Jane Haddam, who became his wife. His first book, Killed in the Ratings (1978), won an Edgar Award in the best first mystery novel category. That debut launched a series centered on Matt Cobb, an executive problem-solver for a TV network who unravels murders alongside corporate foul play. DeAndrea’s other series included the Nero Wolfe–inspired Niccolo Benedetti novels, the Clifford Driscoll espionage series, and the Lobo Blacke/Quinn Booker Old West mysteries. A devoted student of the mystery genre, he also wrote a popular column for the Armchair Detective newsletter. One of his last works, the Edgar Award–winning Encyclopedia Mysteriosa (1994), is a thorough reference guide to sleuthing in books, film, radio, and TV.