ie They are NOT coming from overseas !!
THE ENEMY
- By Desmond Bagley -
ISBN:
Publisher: Book Club Associates, London, UK
Published: 1977
Binding: HARDcover with Dustjacket 285 pages
Condition: UNread straight, tight, spotless copy & displayed condition! HERE in MELBOURNE! A retired display
copy as illustrated!
Edition: FIRST Book Club Associates EDITION: 1st printing 1977
TIGHT, SCARCE HARDCOVER WITH DUSTJACKET ~ IN MELBOURNE ...
WHY do ebayers buy from US?
Because you KNOW what you're getting. My close up photos are of the actual item!!
Remains UNread - it was the display copy instore . It is Tight - neat, no inscriptions or marks within. Appears as in my photos - this is the exact copy!! A nicely preserved copy - superb!
No discernible shelf wear to the red cloth boards themselves - striking gold titles to the spine, the interior is tight and spotlessly clean with 285 crisp pages. THIS copy is the FIRST EDITION: Only printing from 1977 - the UK publishing by Book Club Associates by arrangement with Wm Collins, London.
SCARCE title - this is an UNread copy!!
In original red cloth boards HARDcover binding. Housed in publisher's dustjacket - photograph by Jack Lawrence - which are in excellent overall, unclipped condition. There is some very mild corner wear and a fold impression to bottom front panel at spine - see my photos.
(Stored with 2021!)
Measures approx. 8¼ x 5½ inches or 21 x 13cms
SYNOPSIS ....
Action thriller by the classic adventure writer set in Sweden.
Wealthy, respectable George Ashton flees for his life after an acid attack on his daughter. Who is his enemy? Only Malcolm Jaggard, his future son-in-law, can guess, after seeing Ashton’s top secret government file. In a desperate manhunt, Jaggard pits himself against the KGB and stalks Ashton to the silent, wintry forests of Sweden. But his search for the enemy has barely begun…
From the DUstjacket
‘Malcolm Jaggard, financial consultant, was engaged to Penelope Ashton, the daughter of a successful industrialist and employed in genetics research at a government establishment. While he was visiting the Ashtons’ opulent home in Buckinghamshire, Penny’s sister was viciously attacked by an unknown assailant. Why?
For some reason wealthy, successful George Ashton panicked and disappeared. So did his exemplary manservant. And Penny learned for the first time that her fiancé was a secret agent and that her father’s past was very different from what she had grown up believing.
Jaggard sets out to trace the vanished Ashton, and the scene moves to Sweden and a hair-raising manhunt through its wintry forests. Unaccountable rivalries between intelligence groups, shocking experiments in genetic engineering, and the deepening mystery surrounding Ashton’s disappearance – these are but some of the elements in this startling story which is founded on terrifying scientific facts. Desmond Bagley weaves these into a compelling novel of adventure which more than lives up to the high level of its predecessors.’
About the Author
Desmond Bagley (1923-1983) The internationally acclaimed bestselling English author Desmond Bagley, known to his friends as Simon, was born on 29th October 1923 at a cottage in Stramongate, Kendal, Westmorland (Cumbria). He died, aged 59, on 12th April 1983 in a Southampton hospital after suffering a stroke, leaving us a literary canon of seventeen published novels and a handful of short stories, articles and interviews.
At the time of his death he was reputed to be one of the highest paid writers of fiction novels in the world. Remarkable considering he left school at the age of fourteen having failed to pass any exams, suffered a life-long speech impediment and was nearly forty years old when his first novel, The Golden Keel, was published.
In his obituary, which appeared in The Times on 14th April 1983, he was described as a ‘craftsmanlike thriller novelist’. Bagley was skilled in the art of thriller writing; he travelled extensively and displayed a detailed knowledge of the geographical locations used for the settings in his novels combined with a thorough knowledge of cultural traditions, natural phenomena and technological details.
Mike Ripley, the author of Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang – The boom in British Thrillers from Casino Royal to The Eagle Has Landed, commented of Bagley:
"As was often said about Bagley, his books were not so much about spies or even crimes – though they certainly feature – but about a group of interesting people in an interesting, often dangerous, landscape.
He was certainly in their tradition of British adventure writers, having fairly wholesome heroes who avoided sex and who operated in well-researched foreign locations."
Very Interesting & Entertaining read!
Reviews
'As long as meticulous craftsmanship and honest entertainment are valued, and as long as action, authenticity, and expertise still make up the strong framework of the good adventure/thriller, Desmond Bagley's books will surely be read.' - REGINALD HILL, Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers
'Bagley is a master storyteller.' - DAILY MIRROR
'Mr Bagley has no equal at this sort of thing.' - SUNDAY MIRROR
`Bagley has become a master of the genre - a thriller writer of intelligence and originality.' - SUNDAY TIMES
FIVE STARS … Another great read from Desmond Bagley. Cracking story with a bitter sweet unexpected ending.
Superb - Bagley does it again! .... I'm not usually into spy type stories but Desmond Bagley never fails to tell a good story. I was hooked within the first 30pgs. He is such a good writer...what I call a classic old school writer. Give him a try..and enjoy
WONDERFUL writer … An excellent old school thriller. Tight and linear, suspenseful and fun. This is one of Bagley's best novels
WOW Bagley - this guy rocks!! .. With ‘Running Blind’, Bagley welded his mastery of the action thriller genre to the tenets of the espionage novel, elements of which carried over into its semi-sequel ‘The Freedom Trap’ and were revisited in even more labyrinthine fashion in ‘The Tightrope Men’. Following an unprecedented swerve into courtroom drama with ‘The Snow Tiger’, Bagley took his last great throw of the espionage dice. ‘The Enemy’ has the starkest title in his bibliography and certainly the starkest ending. Which isn’t to say that his wry humour isn’t present - this is a first person narrative and Bagley was always at his driest writing in the first person - and that it doesn’t function as a typically propulsive thriller. Not unlike Alistair MacLean’s ‘The Satan Bug’, it starts out as a procedural before ramping up the action (a stylistic lurch in MacLean’s hands but a seamless transition in Bagley’s). Having said all that, the most memorable and inventive set piece involves a model railway layout.
Who’d have guessed THIS ending??... From a day and time when genetic engineering was still a dream away, and computers were a lot more primitive. Great yarn with unexpected ending.
An oldie but a REAL goodie!! .... At 45 years old, it still stands up as an incredibly well written story - clever plot, great characters - good and bad, and a bittersweet ending. That said the only surprising thing (because Desmond Bagley is a master story teller!) is that I couldn't remember any of it from the first read all those years ago!
Marvellous Reading!
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