Charlie's Apprentice (Windsor Selections) - Hardcover

Brian Freemantle

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0745177654 ISBN 13: 9780745177656

Publisher: Chivers Large print (Chivers, Windsor, Paragon & C, 1994

Synopsis

Charlie Muffin, most devious of spies, has been put out to pasture. Director General Peter Miller, Charlie's new director, has turned Charlie into a schoolmaster, a teacher of spies. All seems set for Charlie in his new role until his apprentice, John Gower, is sent to Beijing to extract a British agent. Gower's mission quickly becomes a failure as he is imprisoned within days of arrival. Miller reluctantly dispatches Charlie to rescue Gower before he reveals all in the face of certain torture; but as Charlie gets more deeply involved, he begins to wonder who is really pulling the strings now that the Cold War is over.

About this title

About the Author:

Brian Freemantle [b. 1936] is one of Britain's most acclaimed authors of spy fiction. His novels have sold over ten million copies worldwide. Born in Southampton, Freemantle entered his career as a journalist, and began writing espionage thrillers in the late 1960s. Charlie M (1977) introduced the world to Charlie Muffin and won Freemantle international recognition—he would go on to publish fourteen titles in the series. 

Freemantle has written dozens of other novels, including two featuring Sebastian Holmes, an illegitimate son of Sherlock Holmes, and the Cowley and Danilov series, about an American FBI agent and a Russian militia detective who work together to comabt organized crime in the post-Cold War world. Freemantle lives and works in London, England.

From Publishers Weekly:

British spy Charlie Muffin, the wonderfully unorthodox hero of several seriocomic adventures by Freemantle, has been put into semiretirement, reduced by his new superiors to training fledgling agents. Charlie adjusts as best he can, forming a personal attachment with his first apprentice, John Gower, and a platonic relationship with the new director's secretary. Meanwhile, in Russia, KGB agent Natalia Fedova, having realized that Charlie had saved her life and career by aborting her planned defection to the West a few years back, decides to track down the rumpled spy in order to let him know that she's borne him a daughter; at the same time, she must guard against the jealous manipulations of a subordinate who wants to destroy her. And in Beijing, a Jesuit who doubles as a British agent finds himself in increasing jeopardy of exposure but refuses to leave his post, prompting the London office to send the unseasoned Gower in to bring him home. When Gower is captured and imprisoned by the Chinese, Charlie must rescue him before an international incident erupts. As usual with Freemantle, secrets hide within secrets, and one way or another, Charlie will have his revenge on those he finds wanting. The delightful way in which that revenge dovetails with Natalia's own designs makes for a most satisfying conclusion, reached amid a flurry of surprises and revelations. Superior work from a master of the form.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Chivers Large print (Chivers, Windsor, Paragon & C
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0745177654
• ISBN 13: 9780745177656
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 560