The unfortunate Englishman : a Joe Wilderness novel

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Title:

The unfortunate Englishman : a Joe Wilderness novel

Author:

Lawton, John, 1949- author.

Series:

Joe Wilderness ;

Series Number:

Summary:

Directed by MI6 to Berlin in 1963 to negotiate a delicate prisoner exchange on either side of the wall, Joe Wilderness covertly plans to use the operation to make a little something extra on the side, with unexpected results.

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

352 pages ; 24 cm

Genre:

Thrillers (Fiction)

Spy fiction.

Subject Term:

Private investigators -- Fiction.

Cold War -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Berlin (Germany) -- Fiction.

Publisher:

Atlantic Monthly Press,

Publication Date:

2016

ISBN:

9780802123992

9781611855456

Publication Information:

New York : Atlantic Monthly Press, [2016]

Call Number:

LAWTON

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003145961	Adult Fiction	LAWTON	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

Having shot someone in what he believed was self-defense in the chaos of 1963 Berlin, Wilderness finds himself locked up with little chance of escape. But an official pardon through his father-in-law Burne-Jones, a senior agent at MI6, means he is free to go--although forever in Burne-Jones's service. His newest operation will take him back to Berlin, which is now the dividing line between the West and the Soviets. A backstory of innocence and intrigue unravels, one in which Wilderness is in and out of Berlin and Vienna like a jack-in-the-box. When the Russians started building the Berlin wall in 1961, two unfortunate Englishmen were trapped on opposite sides. Geoffrey Masefield in the Lubyanka, and Bernard Alleyn (alias KGB Captain Leonid Liubimov) in Wormwood Scrubs. In 1965 there is a new plan. To exchange the prisoners, a swap upon Berlin's bridge of spies. But, as ever, Joe has something on the side, just to make it interesting, just to make it profitable. The Unfortunate Englishman is a thrilling tale of Khrushchev, Kennedy, a spy exchange . . . and ten thousand bottles of fine Bordeaux. What can possibly go wrong?

Author Notes

John Lawton is the author of ten novels, including Second Violin, Flesh Wounds, and Bluffing Mr. Churchill. His thriller Black Out won a WH Smith Fresh Talent Award, A Little White Death was named a New York Times notable book, and his latest novel A Lily of the Field was named one of the best thrillers of the year by Marilyn Stasio of The New York Times. He lives in Derbyshire, England.

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

At the start of Lawton's outstanding second Joe Wilderness novel (after 2014's Then We Take Berlin), the former MI6 agent accidentally shoots and kills a nuclear physicist he's trying to smuggle out of East Berlin in 1963. When Alexander Burne-Jones, Joe's old boss, springs Joe from a West Berlin jail, Joe agrees to go back to work for MI6. Meanwhile, the British spy agency recruits an unassuming Englishman, metallurgist Geoffrey Masefield, and sends him into the field to find where the Russians are hiding their nuclear missiles. Flashbacks bring to life postwar Berlin, where Joe engaged in the "smuggling of coffee, sugar, penicillin, morphine, and anything else that could be nicked." Real historical events-the building of the Berlin wall, J.F.K.'s visit there-lend verisimilitude to Joe's attempt at one last big scam. Intricate plotting, colorful characters, and a brilliant prose style put Lawton in the front rank of historical thriller writers. Agent: Clare Alexander, Aitken Alexander Associates (U.K.). (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.