Beyond recall - Gerald Seymour

'Seymour produces the most intelligent writing in the thriller genre' Financial Times

***

He had been to the limit. Then they sent him further.

Gary - 'Gaz' - Baldwin is a watcher, not a killer. Operating with a special forces unit deep in Syria, he is to sit in a hide, observe a village, report back and leave.

But the appalling atrocity he witnesses will change his life forever.

Before long, he is living as a handyman on the Orkney islands, far from Syria, far from the army, not far enough from the memories that have all but destroyed him.

'Knacker' is one of the last old-school operators at the modern MI6 fortress on the Thames. He presides over the Round Table, a little group who meet in a pub and yearn for simpler, less bureaucratic times.

When news reaches Knacker that the Russian officer responsible for the Syrian incident may be in Murmansk, northern Russia, he sets in motion a plan to kill him. It will involve a sleeper cell, a marksman and other resources - all unlikely to be sanctioned by the MI6 top brass, so it must be done off the books.

But first, he will need a sure identification. And for that, he needs a watcher...

Full of surprise, suspense and betrayal, Beyond Recall is a searching novel of moral complexity and a story of desperate survival.

Gerald Seymour exploded onto the literary scene in 1975 with the massive bestseller HARRY'S GAME. The first major thriller to tackle the modern troubles in Northern Ireland, it was described by Frederick Forsyth as 'like nothing else I have ever read' and it changed the landscape of the British thriller forever.

Gerald Seymour was a reporter at ITN for fifteen years. He covered events in Vietnam, Borneo, Aden, the Munich Olympics, Israel and Northern Ireland. He has been a full-time writer since 1978.

Depicts the desperate world of an agent adrift behind enemy lines as few others can
The Times

The always classy Seymour expertly stacks up the elements of his story to create another intricate, absorbing thriller
The Observer

Highly enjoyable
Guardian

'A novel displaying all the author's many strengths, from his John le Carr-like ability to portray the intelligence world from top to bottom, to its line up of memorable supporting characters'
The Sunday Times

The plot is well engineered, the insider detail precise, the tension ratcheted up turn by turn
Financial Times