Icelight (Peter Cotton) [Hardcover]

'Confirms Aly Monroe's genius for creating such tension that, while nothing much happens, you don't want things to stop not happening. She's commercial writing's rarest beast - a gloriously defiant individualist'

'Monroe is terrific at evoking this world'

'Monroe creates the atmosphere of the time brilliantly . . . an original novel and its people and places are so well described that I was gripped from start to finish'

'A wonderfully atmospheric book'

'Once again, Monroe's research is spot on and she paints her supporting cast with so many shades of grey that it makes a John Le Carré novel look positively straightforward. This is wonderfully atmospheric'

'Dodgy underhand dealings, political manipulations as well as a labyrinth of twists and turns... Definitely an author to watch'

'Riveting stuff'

'The stately pace and avuncular tone belie Monroe's capacity to generate tension and momentum from the most innocuous of incidents, and the political context deliberately foreshadows more famous incidents in the cold-war years ahead, as former allies - Britain, Russia and the US - jockey for position in the post-war years'

'The Peter Cotton series is getting better and better, and in Icelight the internecine squabbling of the security services is a prequel to the real-life problems during the Cold War. I'm really looking forward to the next book'

'The Peter Cotton series by Aly Monroe is proving to be absolutely unmissable'

Praise for the Peter Cotton series:

'Splendid . . . enlightening and engaging'

'Clever and fascinating . . . Reminded me of Graham Greene'

'Impressive . . . The next can't come too soon'

'A natural storyteller . . . a cracking atmosphere'

'Confirms Aly Monroe's genius for creating such tension that, while nothing much happens, you don't want things to stop not happening. She's commercial writing's rarest beast - a gloriously defiant individualist'

'Monroe is terrific at evoking this world'

'Monroe creates the atmosphere of the time brilliantly . . . an original novel and its people and places are so well described that I was gripped from start to finish'

'A wonderfully atmospheric book'

'Once again, Monroe's research is spot on and she paints her supporting cast with so many shades of grey that it makes a John Le Carré novel look positively straightforward. This is wonderfully atmospheric'

'Dodgy underhand dealings, political manipulations as well as a labyrinth of twists and turns... Definitely an author to watch'

'Riveting stuff'

'The stately pace and avuncular tone belie Monroe's capacity to generate tension and momentum from the most innocuous of incidents, and the political context deliberately foreshadows more famous incidents in the cold-war years ahead, as former allies - Britain, Russia and the US - jockey for position in the post-war years'

'The Peter Cotton series is getting better and better and in Icelight the internecine squabbling of the security services is a prequel to the real-life problems during the Cold Ware. I'm really looking forward to the next book'

'The Peter Cotton series by Aly Monroe is proving to be absolutely unmissable'

Praise for the Peter Cotton series:

'Splendid . . . enlightening and engaging'

'Clever and fascinating . . . Reminded me of Graham Greene'

'Impressive . . . The next can't come too soon'

'A natural storyteller . . . a cracking atmosphere'

'it is easy to see why Aly Monroe is fast establishing a large fan base'

1947. Threadbare London endures the bleakest, coldest winter for decades. Food rationing is worse than during the war. Coal supplies run out. The Thames freezes over. 
Against a background of black ice, blackouts and the black market, agent Peter Cotton is seconded to Operation Sea-snake. MI5 is in the grip of civil war; MI6 is riddled with traitors. Unsure who to trust - or even who is pulling the strings - Cotton, ever the outsider, must protect an atomic scientist caught up in a vicious homophobic witch-hunt, limit the damage caused by a bully-boy MP, rely on a rent-boy informer and, despite the murderous attentions of a couple of Glasgow razor boys, embark on a ruthless hunt of his own.