First Published 1992
The promise of The Last Raven isn’t quite followed up as much as I would have liked. That book ended with Aubrey deciding on revenge against Palus Malan, the South African businessman who was up to no good. Early on in this book we discover that Aubrey has more or less changed his mind.
In Southern Africa British ex-pat Richard Anderson (clearly based on the Richard Gardner character from Wolfsbane) discovers a crashed plane in the desert. Inside are stolen British hi-tech electronics and a dead KGB man.
He takes some of the electronics as proof, intending to forward them on to his old boss, Aubrey. Then bad guy Blantyre turns up and before the night is out Anderson’s home is destroyed and his wife is dead. Now he will get his revenge.
Meanwhile in England and Italy Patrick Hyde is following up the opposite end of the electronics smuggling ring. And somewhere in there Babbington rears his head for the last time. It’s all a little confusing.
I felt that it was a slightly disappointing follow-up to his last book, but maybe that’s probably because The Last Raven was so damn good!