Ted Allbeury The Assets Pbk published March 2001 by Coronet at £6.99 ISBN: 0340770554
Artwork by: Cover photograph: David Rudkin

"I can still remember vividly the months after the surrender in 1945 when my unit and I were combing our area of Germany for Nazis . . . I learned from those days that there wasn't all that much difference between German intelligence officers, KGB men and me. . . After I had left the services I got more Christmas cards from men I'd arrested and interrogated than from others. Could be a reflection on my character of course."
Ted Allbeury was as natural an agent as he is an author. Few who have read his novels could not suspect that, like John le Carre, Ted is a veteran of very real intelligence operations. Recruited during the Second World War, he stood out at a time when many brilliant young spies were proving their worth (although he would feel bound to point out, with typical modesty, that perhaps the most successful of all was one Kim Philiby). Entering SIS as a private, Allbeury, was a lieutenant-colonel by 1948. His rise had seen him masquerading as a military liason officer in the court of the Emperor of Ethiopia, working in North Africa and Europe and finally directing the denazification of a region of Germany the size of Yorkshire:
The place stank of dead bodies and no-one had any idea how to behave. I was immediately regarded as the British Gestapo ... I remember walking down by the river bank where German families would be strolling. We would look at each other and it was rather like a lion walking round a herd of deer. No-one knew what to do or say.
But if there was tension, Allbeury thrived on it. Len Deighton has born tribute to this: an interrogation scene in his Horse Under Water is based almost exactly on one of Allbeury's real questionings. Deighton has admitted that there is more than a little of his fellow author in The Ipcress File's Harry Palmer. Unlike Palmer, however, Allbeury chose not to be a creature of the Cold War. Believing he had too much power for a man of only 28, he left SIS and tried to put his past behind him for twenty years.
Civilian life saw him labouring in a foundery, working in advertising, failing as a farmer and prospering as a director of a pirate radio station. Shut down in 1967, Radio 390 has a sort of posthumous cult following - Allbeury receives quantities of fan mail every August 17, the anniversary of his station's demise. Yet nothing could hold his attention for long, leaving him, by his own admission, extremely depressed. Taking "blue pills to get through the night and green pills to get through the day", he turned to writing about his experiences in Germany because "I was so weak that I needed to do something sitting down". A friend passed a few chapters to Ian Fleming's literary agent. Allbeury only learned of this when he was called to be told the American rights had been sold. A Choice of Enemies was soon a best-seller.
Ever since the success of his first novel, Ted Allbeury has lead the way in exploring the world of espionage with conviction and sincerity. His one book outside his usual genre, 1986 The Choice, was a great success, but the author has always found it most stimulating to probe the minds of spies:
If you describe how a gun fires, people won't want it repeated, book after book. The secret is to write about the tensions between people. The plot will follow on from that.

Jeffery Deaver Manhattan is My Beat Pbk published February 2001 by Coronet at £5.99 ISBN: 0340793112

In 1988, a young Jeffery Deaver emerged onto the crime scene with a fresh New York crime series starring a young filmmaker - Rune. Sassy, clever but with all the noirish twists and turns of the classic Deaver, the series quickly established their author as one to watch. Now, Jeff has completely reworked these novels - making them darker, grittier and more claustrophobic - and Hodder & Stoughton can present them to his fans. In this brilliant opener, Rune becomes obsessed by the brutal murder of a strange old man.

Jeffery Deaver Hard News Pbk published March 2001 by Coronet at £6.99 ISBN: 0340793139

Rune seems to have finally made the first real step towards her dreams - she has secured a job working for a major network news department. From there, her career as a budding documentary maker can really take off. However, she quickly becomes fascinated by the brutal murder of the network boss, and comes to the conclusion that the guy in the frame for the crime must be innocent. But, trying to prove that innocence starts to become hazardous to her own health when a hitman comes to town.

Jeffery Deaver Death Of A Blue Movie Star Pbk published March 2001 by Coronet at £6.99 ISBN: 0340793120

She calls herself Rune. She lives a downtown life and works running errands for a couple of documentary filmmakers. At twenty-one, she's nowhere, and that's not where she wants to be. So, armed with a borrowed Betacam, she embarks on a freelance career of making movies herself. But when she becomes interested in an arson attack on XXX cinema, and then one of the erotica stars is killed in front of her, it starts to look like she could have bitten off more than she can chew.

Stephen Leather Stretch Pbk published February 2001 by Coronet at £5.99 ISBN: 0340770333

Frederic Lindsay Death Knock Pbk published January 2001 by Coronet at £6.99 ISBN: 0340765712
Artwork by: Cover image: Stewart Larking

Born in Glasgow, Frederic Lindsay now lives in Edinburgh. He has served on the Literature Committee of the Scottish Arts Council, and is actively involved with PEN and the Society of Authors. He has written for the theatre, radio, tv and film, and is the author of sever previous highly-acclaimed novels. His three earlier novels to feature DI Jim Meldrum, Idle Hands, A Kind of Dying and Kissing Judas, are all available in Coronet paperback.