The Envoy

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 Carre' 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

Edward Wilson is a native of Baltimore. He studied International Relations on a US Army scholarship and later served as a Special Forces officer in Vietnam. He received the Army Commendation Medal with 'V' for his part in rescuing wounded Vietnamese soldiers from a minefield. His other decorations include the Bronze Star and the Combat Infantryman's Badge. After leaving the Army, Wilson became an expatriate and gave up US nationality to become a British citizen. He has also lived and worked in Germany and France, and was a post-graduate student at Edinburgh University. He now lives in Suffolk where he taught English and Modern Languages for thirty years.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.