The Keys of Hell
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4.3 • 3 Ratings
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
Super-spy Paul Chavasse – British Intelligence's most maverick agent – is embroiled in an deadly double-cross, in this new revised edition of Jack Higgins' classic spy thriller.
The Chief of the Bureau has a ‘simple’ job for Paul Chavasse – slip into Albania and eliminate a double agent. Then he can take a holiday.
The innocent-sounding words are the prelude to a desperate race against time which leads Chavasse across land and sea in search of a priceless relic before it can fall into the hands of political extremists. With a diving expert and midget submarines to help him, what can go wrong?
But a trap has been set. For him. By someone who has waited a long time for revenge. As his escape routes are remorselessly closed off, the indestructible Chavasse, whom no one could ever out-think or out-fight, is now headed straight for destruction – for Hell …
Reviews
‘Higgins is a master of his craft.’
Daily Telegraph
‘A thriller writer in a class of his own.’
Financial Times
‘A compulsively readable storyteller.’
Sunday Express
‘The master craftsman of good, clean adventure.’
Daily Mail
About the author
Jack Higgins lived in Belfast till the age of twelve. Leaving school at fifteen, he spent three years with the Royal Horse Guards, and was later a teacher and university lecturer. His thirty-sixth novel, The Eagle Has Landed (1975), turned him into an international bestselling author, and his novels have since sold over 250 million copies and been translated into sixty languages. Many have been made into successful films. He died in 2022, at his home in Jersey, surrounded by his family.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Originally released in the U.K. under the pseudonym Martin Fallon, this newly revised, long-lost gem from 1965 follows the exploits of British agent Sir Paul Chavasse, a James Bond like hero who is a frequent player in Higgins's early novels (Midnight Never Comes, etc.). The novel opens in the present day with a much older Chavasse, now the Belfast Bureau Chief, preparing to meet Mafia Don Tino Rossi. En route, he's waylaid by Rossi's "nephew," Mario Volpe, who claims to be acting on his uncle's behalf. Volpe hands Chavasse a report describing one of the former agent's 30-year-old assignments. As he reads, Chavasse is transported back in time to a communist-torn Albania, where he and his friend and covert colleague, Guilio Orsini, are engaged in helping the sexy but duplicitous Francesca Minetti rescue a religious icon believed to have miraculous powers. While recalling their near-death chase in the Buene Marshes, Chavasse wonders how this past escapade connects to the Rossi family. Higgins's characters are only marginally developed, but he deftly weaves past and present-day adventures together with sparse exposition and maximum action to create a tale that will delight his many fans.
