The Devil's Handshake

It is January 1943 and, in the shabby attic of the SOE headquarters in Baker Street, an unloved department is given the most crucial task of its short existence - to redeem the whole organisation in Churchill's eyes by assassinating Adolf Hitler. Finding the right man for the mission seems increasingly impossible, until the junior officer in this tiny team himself volunteers. Dropped into Bavaria in the guise of a wounded German officer, Lusty is forced to kill a village policeman to protect his cover - thus putting a ruthless detective called Jager on his trail. After winning the confidence of Hitler's mistress, Eva Braun, the assassin is getting ever closer to his target but, just as he is about to make the hit, a change in Allied policy scuppers his plans. Hunted by Jager, pursued by the Gestapo, with his escape route across the border closing, Lusty also finds himself betrayed by London. Alone in a darkening land, with every man turned against him, Lusty's fate now rests in the hands of the local woman who has fallen in love with him.

Murray Davies is the author of two previous very successful thrillers, THE DRUMBEAT OF JIMMY SANDES and THE SAMSON OPTION. He lives in Greenwich and Wiltshire.