Jonas Merrick - a legendary intelligence analyst for MI5 - has been banished to the Post Room of Thames House. There, he is expected to pass his remaining days before inevitable retirement.

In a Russian gulag, an MI6 agent has developed an unlikely passion for a prisoner and has come up with an ingenious plan to free her. The key: a ruthless Albanian gang laundering the dirty money of the Russian elite.

Merrick, the only agent with the experience to help, is brought back once again to intercept the Albanian courier until an exchange is organised by the Russians.

But when it transpires that the courier is the heir of the criminal gang's leader, the danger mounts, and Merrick once again finds himself in a situation spiralling towards a bloody confrontation.

Frighteningly topical and intensely plotted, Jonas Merrick - one of the great figures of modern spy fiction - returns