Dimensions
156 x 233 x 30mm
For all readers of Robert Harris, William Boyd and John le Carre, The Suicide Club is a First World War spy thriller set in Occupied Belgium in 1917, and tells the dark, disturbing and untold story of the shadow espionage battle fought behind the lines.
August 1917. Europe is mired in bloody stalemate at Passchendaele. Soldier spy Sandy Innes is not best pleased to be summoned from his undercover work in Belgium and seconded to British Army Headquarters. Field Marshal Haig's intelligence chief wants Innes's expertise - and access to his spy network - in preparation for the Big Push he hopes will win the war by Christmas. But Innes's boss, the wily Mansfield Cumming, head of the new Secret Service, has his own reasons for securing Innes a place on Haig's Staff - there are, he tells Innes, 'concerns' in government about the army's intelligence operation. Innes deduces that it must be a great deal more serious than that if Cumming's political masters want him to spy on the senior officers of their own army.
Behind the lines at H.Q., Innes's briefings on the German defences in Belgium are largely ignored by his new boss, Brigadier General Charteris. Instead he discovers he is to be part of a advance assault group that will prepare the way for the British 'breakthrough'. The other Intelligence Officers have a name for the group: 'The Suicide Club'. It is clear they have little faith in Charteris and his schemes, and are deeply suspicious of the advice he is offering Haig. They tell Innes that one of their number questioned the integrity of Charteris's intelligence reports, but died in mysterious circumstances before he could take it further.
As Innes digs deeper, he discovers that the dead man had begun to investigate Charteris's prized spy network in Belgium, Operation Faust. In what becomes a race against time, Innes must uncover a traitor, protect his own network and survive membership of The Suicide Club.
