‘The best thriller writer in the world’ Daily Telegraph

*****

Jonas Merrick – a legendary intelligence analyst for MI5 – has been banished to the Post Room of Thames House. There, he is expected to pass his remaining days before inevitable retirement.

In a Russian gulag, an MI6 agent has developed an unlikely passion for a prisoner and has come up with an ingenious plan to free her. The key: a ruthless Albanian gang laundering the dirty money of the Russian elite.
Merrick, the only agent with the experience to help, is brought back once again to intercept the Albanian courier until an exchange is organised by the Russians.

But when it transpires that the courier is the heir of the criminal gang’s leader, the danger mounts, and Merrick once again finds himself in a situation spiralling towards a bloody confrontation.

Frighteningly topical and intensely plotted, Jonas Merrick – one of the great figures of modern spy fiction – returns

‘The best thriller writer in the world’ Daily Telegraph

*****

Jonas Merrick – a legendary intelligence analyst for MI5 – has been banished to the Post Room of Thames House. There, he is expected to pass his remaining days before inevitable retirement.

In a Russian gulag, an MI6 agent has developed an unlikely passion for a prisoner and has come up with an ingenious plan to free her. The key: a ruthless Albanian gang laundering the dirty money of the Russian elite.
Merrick, the only agent with the experience to help, is brought back once again to intercept the Albanian courier until an exchange is organised by the Russians.

But when it transpires that the courier is the heir of the criminal gang’s leader, the danger mounts, and Merrick once again finds himself in a situation spiralling towards a bloody confrontation.

Frighteningly topical and intensely plotted, Jonas Merrick – one of the great figures of modern spy fiction – returns

In Bath a young Chinese woman has secured the affections of a young brainiac working on that very problem.

In Leamington Spa a deep cover operative has given himself away.

And in London Jonas Merrick watches all, assessing, planning. A moment, perhaps, for him to strike a blow to China’s espionage network in the UK.

One thing he does not see, however, is in Moscow. An order given: ‘bring me his head’.

Tautly plotted and frighteningly authentic Best Served Cold cements Jonas Merrick as one of the great figures of modern spy fiction.

In Bath a young Chinese woman has secured the affections of a young brainiac working on that very problem.

In Leamington Spa a deep cover operative has given himself away.

And in London Jonas Merrick watches all, assessing, planning. A moment, perhaps, for him to strike a blow to China’s espionage network in the UK.

One thing he does not see, however, is in Moscow. An order given: ‘bring me his head’.

Tautly plotted and frighteningly authentic The Best Revenge cements Jonas Merrick as one of the great figures of modern spy fiction.

And their ambition reaches further still.

Galicia: an entire community waits on the windswept edge of Europe for the delivery of four tonnes of cocaine, brought across the ocean in an almost unbelievable craft.

London: Jonas Merrick, grey and quiet, alone in a small office, seems an unlikely character to be tasked with bringing down an international drug network.

But while Jonas’s colleagues regard him as scratchy, fastidious, old, he is also ruthless, cunning and brutally pragmatic. And he has a man on the inside: a would-be money-launderer on that wild Spanish coast. A man who has been undercover for so long, he has almost forgotten who he really is.

And he is due to come home. Has to. For he will be given no mercy if he is caught.

But Jonas needs him to stay.

The superb Jonas Merrick is fast becoming one of the great figures of British spy fiction. In At The Kill may be his most compelling story yet.

And their ambition reaches further still.

Galicia: an entire community waits on the windswept edge of Europe for the delivery of four tonnes of cocaine, brought across the ocean in an almost unbelievable craft.

London: Jonas Merrick, grey and quiet, alone in a small office, seems an unlikely character to be tasked with bringing down an international drug network.

But while Jonas’s colleagues regard him as scratchy, fastidious, old, he is also ruthless, cunning and brutally pragmatic. And he has a man on the inside: a would-be money-launderer on that wild Spanish coast. A man who has been undercover for so long, he has almost forgotten who he really is.

And he is due to come home. Has to. For he will be given no mercy if he is caught.

But Jonas needs him to stay.

The superb Jonas Merrick is fast becoming one of the great figures of British spy fiction. In At The Kill may be his most compelling story yet.

‘Strong echoes of George Smiley’ – Financial Times

‘A novel of real quality. Top brass’ – The Times Thriller of the Month

*****

Beware of Russians bearing gifts.

Defectors are not always welcome.

Is the information they bring worth the cost of protecting them for the rest of their lives? Is it even genuine? Might they be double agents?

These are some of the questions facing MI6 when a Russian agent hands himself in to them in Denmark.

As a team begins to assess his value, his former employers in the Kremlin develop a brutal plan to show that no defector will ever be safe.

And they know where to find him. Which means there must be a mole in MI6.

So it is that the cavaliers of Six find themselves being interrogated by nondescript Jonas Merrick of Five – the man called back from retirement and his beloved caravan, the man the young guns call the Eternal Flame because ‘he never goes out.’

But while he may be grey, Jonas is also ruthless. As he quietly works through the suspects in London, and violent mayhem breaks out in Denmark, Jonas plans not just to unmask a traitor, but to hit back at the Russians with deadly force.

First encountered in The Crocodile Hunter, Jonas Merrick is set to become one of the great figures of modern spy fiction.

*****

Readers love THE FOOT SOLDIERS:

‘I was completely gripped by the plot and interdepartmental jealousies and rivalries. I couldn’t put it down!’
*****

‘A book that fans of the George Smiley series will love’
*****

‘A brilliant, suspenseful and contemporary thriller . . . A wonderfully complex and unputdownable tale of defectors, traitors, internal politics . . . and assassination’
*****

‘Seymour continues to carry the flame for the espionage genre, and his sublime creation, Jonas Merrick, a 21st-century George Smiley . . . is slowly but surely becoming a classic literary creation’
****

‘Strong echoes of George Smiley’ – Financial Times

‘A novel of real quality. Top brass’ – The Times Thriller of the Month

*****

Beware of Russians bearing gifts.

Defectors are not always welcome.

Is the information they bring worth the cost of protecting them for the rest of their lives? Is it even genuine? Might they be double agents?

These are some of the questions facing MI6 when a Russian agent hands himself in to them in Denmark.

As a team begins to assess his value, his former employers in the Kremlin develop a brutal plan to show that no defector will ever be safe.

And they know where to find him. Which means there must be a mole in MI6.

So it is that the cavaliers of Six find themselves being interrogated by nondescript Jonas Merrick of Five – the man called back from retirement and his beloved caravan, the man the young guns call the Eternal Flame because ‘he never goes out.’

But while he may be grey, Jonas is also ruthless. As he quietly works through the suspects in London, and violent mayhem breaks out in Denmark, Jonas plans not just to unmask a traitor, but to hit back at the Russians with deadly force.

First encountered in The Crocodile Hunter, Jonas Merrick is set to become one of the great figures of modern spy fiction.

*****

Readers love THE FOOT SOLDIERS:

‘I was completely gripped by the plot and interdepartmental jealousies and rivalries. I couldn’t put it down!’
*****

‘A book that fans of the George Smiley series will love’
*****

‘A brilliant, suspenseful and contemporary thriller . . . A wonderfully complex and unputdownable tale of defectors, traitors, internal politics . . . and assassination’
*****

‘Seymour continues to carry the flame for the espionage genre, and his sublime creation, Jonas Merrick, a 21st-century George Smiley . . . is slowly but surely becoming a classic literary creation’
****

‘The best thriller writer in the world’ Daily Telegraph

*****

Jonas Merrick. At MI5 they call him ‘the eternal flame’, because he never goes out. Never goes undercover, or on surveillance, or kicking down doors. If he’s studying a map, he’s probably planning his caravan holiday.

But what the hot-shots fail to notice in Jonas is a steely concentration, a ruthless ability to find the enemy who hides in plain sight like a submerged crocodile, waiting for prey.

Cameron Jilkes. A young man from a broken background, trained as a Jihadi in the harshest theatre of war. Coming ashore near Dover, he plans to live unnoticed, before unleashing a terrifying strike.

And this time, Jonas Merrick must go out – to hunt the crocodile himself.

Featuring a chapter from the new Jonas Merrick novel The Foot Soldiers, publishing in 2022

*****

Readers love THE CROCODILE HUNTER:

‘Another winner from Gerald Seymour’ 5*

‘An outstanding book and thoroughly recommended’ 5*

‘Every year without fail . . . Gerald Seymour comes up with a masterful thriller . . . A wonderful read from a master of his craft’ 5*