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Book 3 in the Peter Cotton spy thriller series, for fans of John le Carré and Robert Harris.
Winner of the 2012 Ellis Peters Historical Fiction Award
Praise for Aly Monroe
‘Splendid . . .Monroe provides terrific and convincing historical atmosphere’ The Times
‘Skilful and evocative . . . [a] stylish and impressive debut’ The Economist
1947. Threadbare London endures the bleakest, coldest winter for decades. Food rationing is worse than during the war. Coal supplies run out. The Thames freezes over.
Against a background of black ice, blackouts and the black market, agent Peter Cotton is seconded to Operation Sea-snake. MI5 is in the grip of civil war; MI6 is riddled with traitors. Unsure who to trust – or even who is pulling the strings – Cotton, ever the outsider, must protect an atomic scientist caught up in a vicious homophobic witch-hunt, limit the damage caused by a bully-boy MP, rely on a rent-boy informer and, despite the murderous attentions of a couple of Glasgow razor boys, embark on a ruthless hunt of his own.
The Peter Cotton spy thriller series:
Book 1: The Maze of Cadiz
Book 2: Washington Shadow
Book 3: Icelight
Book 2: Black Bear
Short story: Redeemable
Winner of the 2012 Ellis Peters Historical Fiction Award
Praise for Aly Monroe
‘Splendid . . .Monroe provides terrific and convincing historical atmosphere’ The Times
‘Skilful and evocative . . . [a] stylish and impressive debut’ The Economist
1947. Threadbare London endures the bleakest, coldest winter for decades. Food rationing is worse than during the war. Coal supplies run out. The Thames freezes over.
Against a background of black ice, blackouts and the black market, agent Peter Cotton is seconded to Operation Sea-snake. MI5 is in the grip of civil war; MI6 is riddled with traitors. Unsure who to trust – or even who is pulling the strings – Cotton, ever the outsider, must protect an atomic scientist caught up in a vicious homophobic witch-hunt, limit the damage caused by a bully-boy MP, rely on a rent-boy informer and, despite the murderous attentions of a couple of Glasgow razor boys, embark on a ruthless hunt of his own.
The Peter Cotton spy thriller series:
Book 1: The Maze of Cadiz
Book 2: Washington Shadow
Book 3: Icelight
Book 2: Black Bear
Short story: Redeemable
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Reviews
'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'
'Monroe is terrific at evoking this world'
'Monroe conjures up an atmosphere as thick as the fog in grim, austere post-war London'
'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'
'A wonderfully atmospheric book'
'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'
'Dodgy underhand dealings, political manipulations as well as a labyrinth of twists and turns... Definitely an author to watch'
'Riveting stuff'
'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'
'MI5 is in the grip of civil war; MI6 is riddled with traitors . . . Monroe conjures up a world of murder and double dealing'
'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'
'This spy novel is set in London in 1947. The atmosphere of that time is superbly evoked so that the hardships that the British lived through then are clearly described and almost tangible . . . absolutely fascinating'
'The Peter Cotton series by Aly Monroe is proving to be absolutely unmissable'
Praise for the Peter Cotton series:
'Splendid . . . enlightening and engaging'
'Clever and fascinating . . . Reminded me of Graham Greene'
'Impressive . . . The next can't come too soon'
'A natural storyteller . . . a cracking atmosphere'
'it is easy to see why Aly Monroe is fast establishing a large fan base'
'A cracking political thriller . . . a rattling good read'
'Monroe conjures up a world of murder and double-dealing'