Talking to Strange Men (Signed 1st)

Two plotlines run through this crime novel. The main adult protagonist is John Creevey who stumbles upon a series of hidden coded messages which he thinks must be the work of criminals or spies. John is unhappy and depressed. His wife Jennifer has left him for Peter Mullin, her old fiancé, and he cannot accept that she will not return to him. He is still affected by the murder of his sister 16 years ago and Peter, her fiancé, is equally unhappy. John becomes obsessed by unravelling the codes, spending hours trying to break them. The coded messages are, however, being left by rival groups of public schoolboys. These boys are emulating the world of the 1980s spy fiction with the home team led by 14-year-old Mungo battling against Moscow Centre, run by boys at a rival school. Mungo is over six feet tall and has inherited the leadership from his older brother. The groups have moles and traitors. One of Mungo's team is Charles Mabledene, another 14-year-old, but Mungo is not sure if he is really on their side and sets out to test him. Jennifer and Peter come round to John's house in one of their attempts to get him to agree to a quick divorce and Colin, a friend of John's, recognises from when he was a juror. He tells John that Peter pleaded guilty to indecent assault on a male child under the age of thirteen. John wonders how he can use this information to turn Jennifer against Peter and is also worried because a 12-year-old boy has been abducted from where Peter and Jennifer live on an afternoon when Peter was on his own. John decides to intercept and alter one of the messages and gives instructions for Peter to be investigated. The message is sent to Charles and he interprets this as being the loyalty test he is expecting. This copy is fine in black cloth with gilt titles on the spine. No marks or damage at all. The unclipped DJ is also excellent. Signed by Rendell on the title page. . BI19.…