Slipping into Shadow Book

Marian Pyott is just trying to be a good constituency MP when the fiancée of a constituent is found OD'd and the police announce he was probably a heroin dealer; Patrick Hyde is an investigator, tracing money and drugs in the most patient of manners.It was really he himself who had got Henderson knifed to death. He'd become greedy for what he imagined Henderson could lead him to--new faces like that of the white man, connections with the hotel chain whose casinos must be laundering operations for the heroin profits ... Hyde shook his head. Both find themselves up against an international conspiracy, betrayed by those whose idea of realistic politics involves giving a free hand to evil, whether to hired assassins like Jessop, crooked businessmen like David Winterborne (the childhood friend Marian came up against in A Different War) or the military regimes of Burma and China. Thomas is writing Buchan for the 90s and is genuinely exciting whether his characters are running for their lives through derelict London housing estates, the jungles of South East Asia or the slums of Rangoon or whether those chasing them are flying helicopter gun ships or just planting car bombs. .Slipping into Shadow is an intelligent thriller because it is fascinated with how things work; its hairbreadth escapes and smart stratagems convince even the most blasé of readers. --Roz KaveneyRead More