Family Business

The 12th Jonas Forbes Thriller
1966. London is plagued by gangs led by the Kray twins and Charlie Richardson. Daniel Longcroft, the senior partner in a Tunbridge Wells legal practice has been working for the Morrisons, another London gang in a swindle gang exploiting the housing boom. That attracts the attention of his secretary, Hilda Frost. He starts cheating the gang but is betrayed by his spend-thrift wife, Cecile, to her lover, Maxwell Morrison. Both Daniel and Cecile are kidnapped, tortured and Daniel disappears PERMANENTLY.
John Fairbrother, a junior partner, is seriously injured when he rejects advances from the Morrison gang. However, he’s the brother-in-law of Jonas Forbes, Enquiry Agent, who decides to strike back at the gang. He kills Archie Morrison and goes into hiding near Petworth in Sussex. There he’s helped by his cousin, David Simmonds, and rapidly blends in with the local population – to the irritation of some.
The police are so concentrating on smashing the Richardson and Kray gangs they’re reluctant to be diverted towards the Morrison gang. In fact, they’re just as determined to arrest Jonas for murder. Jonas is betrayed by a jealous local to the gang who arrive to hunt him down. But the tale isn’t over yet.
How does Jonas, isolated and outnumbered, escape death? Why do the gang release a mentally-fragile Cecile back into the public arena? How does intervention by Hilda Frost help to bring about the final destruction of the gang?