The Long Revenge — June Thomson

"You will not live to enjoy your pleasant retirement. Revenge is very sweet. When we meet again, the old debt shall be repaid." The recipient of the ominous note, and intended victim, was Alec Mercer, a British Secret Service agent with an involved past and a casual attitude toward his threatened present. After all, in espionage work, one is bound to make a few enemies. But British Intelligence is less inclined to take the matter lightly, and the very thorough Detective Inspector Rudd is called in to track down the would-be assassin. The trail takes Rudd to the Calvados region of France, the scene of Mercer's wartime activities with the resistance. There he discovers the hidden hatreds that go back more than thirty years. And, as he sifts the facts behind the bunch of white roses on a girl's grave and the deserted fishing hut on a Suffolk marsh, he learns the tragedy of a story of betrayal dearly paid for. In the context of an intricate and enthralling detective novel, June Thomson writes about human fallibility, evoking her characters with sympathy and compassion, qualities which her readers will remember.