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From the author of ICELIGHT, winner of the 2012 Ellis Peters Historical Fiction Award, BLACK BEAR is the fourth in the critically acclaimed Peter Cotton series following the fortunes of British spy Peter Cotton as he navigates the treacherous uncertainties of the post-war world. For all fans of John le Carre, Robert Harris, Eric Ambler and Graham Greene.
‘Confirms Aly Monroe’s genius for creating tension…’ Daily Telegraph
Sent to Manhattan as part of the British effort to build intelligence into the new United Nations Organisation ‘from the foundations up’, Agent Peter Cotton wakes up in the Ogden Clinic on East 76th Street, a private facility reserved for very special patients and veterans.
He is told he was found badly bruised, slumped in a doorway, and that he had been injected with at least three ‘truth-drugs’. He is lucky to be alive.
Plagued by vertigo, colour blindness and tunnel vision, and unable to be certain what is real and what hallucinatory, Cotton must piece together what has happened to him, find out who is responsible and why. What he discovers is even more unsettling. His biggest uncertainty? Why he has been allowed to live.
‘Confirms Aly Monroe’s genius for creating tension…’ Daily Telegraph
Sent to Manhattan as part of the British effort to build intelligence into the new United Nations Organisation ‘from the foundations up’, Agent Peter Cotton wakes up in the Ogden Clinic on East 76th Street, a private facility reserved for very special patients and veterans.
He is told he was found badly bruised, slumped in a doorway, and that he had been injected with at least three ‘truth-drugs’. He is lucky to be alive.
Plagued by vertigo, colour blindness and tunnel vision, and unable to be certain what is real and what hallucinatory, Cotton must piece together what has happened to him, find out who is responsible and why. What he discovers is even more unsettling. His biggest uncertainty? Why he has been allowed to live.
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Reviews
'Monroe is terrific at evoking this world'
'Clever and fascinating . . . Reminded me of Graham Greene'
'A wonderfully atmospheric book'
Praise for the Peter Cotton series:
'Splendid . . . enlightening and engaging'
'Riveting stuff'
'Confirms Aly Monroe's genius for creating such tension that, while nothing much happens, you don't want things to stop not happening. She's commercial writing's rarest beast - a gloriously defiant individualist'
'Impressive . . . The next can't come too soon'
'The stately pace and avuncular tone belie Monroe's capacity to generate tension and momentum from the most innocuous of incidents, and the political context deliberately foreshadows more famous incidents in the cold-war years ahead, as former allies - Britain, Russia and the US - jockey for position in the post-war years'
Ian Fleming fans reading Black Bear might find themselves recalling the opening section of Thunderball and James Bond's retreat to a health spa, but where Bond snapped back into action almost immediately, Cotton's recovery from his brutalising experience forms the framework for the entire novel. This is in part due to the quality of realism that Monroe brings to her storytelling . . . Monroe's gorgeous prose and psychological trauma of a mind unsure that it can trust its own thoughts all add up to a delicately nuanced character sturdy
'it is easy to see why Aly Monroe is fast establishing a large fan base'
His story is a tense atmospheric narrative where subtle innuendo, smart conversation, superb character profiles and relationships are more important than the action . . . Black Bear, and there are two of them in the story, is a fine addition to a series which has got me hooked
'The Peter Cotton series is getting better and better and in Icelight the internecine squabbling of the security services is a prequel to the real-life problems during the Cold Ware. I'm really looking forward to the next book'
'Dodgy underhand dealings, political manipulations as well as a labyrinth of twists and turns... Definitely an author to watch'
'The Peter Cotton series by Aly Monroe is proving to be absolutely unmissable'
'Once again, Monroe's research is spot on and she paints her supporting cast with so many shades of grey that it makes a John Le Carré novel look positively straightforward. This is wonderfully atmospheric'
'A natural storyteller . . . a cracking atmosphere'
'Monroe creates the atmosphere of the time brilliantly . . . an original novel and its people and places are so well described that I was gripped from start to finish'
Atmospheric, engrossing and intelligently written, Black Bear tantalises from the very first page until its conclusion