The Irregular: A Different Class of Spy

London 1909: The British Empire spans the globe, seen as an invulnerable imperial power—but in Russia, there is revolution in the wind; in Germany, an arms race; and in London, the streets are alive with foreign agents provocateur.

Vernon Kell, head of counterintelligence at the War Office, wants to set up a Secret Service, an agency with a mandate to act domestically and abroad to protect the interests of the Empire. But to convince his political masters of its necessity, he needs proof of a threat. To find that proof, he needs an agent he can trust who is smart, ruthless—and able to blend in with the hoi polloi. Eton may produce good army and naval officers, but not men who can work undercover in a munitions factory, from which secrets have been leaked to the Germans . . .

Kell's old friend Sherlock Holmes tells him Wiggins is the man he needs. Wiggins was one of Holmes’s “Baker Street Irregulars”, a gang of urchin investigators he trained and organized. Wiggins, on his own since age 7, became a cunning street fighter. As a soldier in the Boer War (1899-1902), he also learned how to fight dirty from the Boer guerilla fighters of South Africa. Holmes calls Wiggins "the best” because he also has a talent for deduction second only to the Great Detective himself.

But Wiggins turns down Kell’s job—he "don't do official." Then his best friend, Bill, a constable with the London police, is killed by Russian anarchists, and Wiggins realizes that accepting the role of secret agent could give him the cover he needs to pursue revenge against Bill's killers.

Tracking down the Russian gang responsible for the murder and assembling a motley network of allies and informants in the process, Wiggins begins to unravel a deadly international conspiracy that reaches far beyond the munitions factory.

H.B. Lyle lives in South London with his partner and their twin daughters. After a career in feature film development, he took an MA in creative writing, followed by a PhD, at the University of East Anglia, an experience which led to the creation of The Irregular. He also writes screenplays and teaches undergraduates.