The brilliant opening novel of the Catesby series, by a former special forces officer and ''the thinking person''s John le Carre''

''Edward Wilson seems poised to inherit the mantle of John le Carré'' Irish Independent

''More George Smiley than James Bond, Catesby will delight those readers looking for less blood and more intelligence in their spy thrillers'' Publishers Weekly

London, 1956. The height of the Cold War.

On the face of it, Kit Fournier is a senior diplomat at the US embassy in Grosvenor Square. But that''s not the full story. He is also CIA Chief of Station.

With the nuclear arms race looming large, Kit goes undercover to meet with his KGB counterpart to pass on secret information about British spies. In a world where truth means deception and love means honey trap, sexual blackmail and personal betrayal are essential skills.

As the H-bomb apocalypse hangs over London, Kit Fournier faces a crisis of the soul. The unveiling of his own dark personal secrets will prove more deadly than any of his coded dispatches.

''A glorious, seething broth of historical fact and old-fashioned spy story'' The Times

''A sophisticated, convincing novel that shows governments and their secret services as cynically exploitative and utterly ruthless'' Sunday Telegraph

Praise for Edward Wilson:

''Stylistically sophisticated . . . Wilson knows how to hold the reader''s attention'' W.G. Sebald

''A reader is really privileged to come across something like this'' Alan Sillitoe