'With its subtly deployed late-60s detail, Free Country is a treat for fans of traditional Len Deighton-style spy thrillers.' Guardian 21/08 Jeremy Dun's Free Country is a blast from the past in an altogether different vein: a taut and tortured exploration of betrayal on the national, ideological and personal levels simultaneously. The aptly named Paul Dark -- already revealed as a Soviet double agent within MI6 in Free Agent, the first of this evolving trilogy -- now finds himself promoted to deputy chief of the service but at the same time a target for both his past and present masters. Almost murdered by a sniper at the memorial service for the previous chief -- whom nobody realises that he himself gunned down -- he is sent to Italy to hunt a Moscow-backed movement planning Europe-wide terror attacks. But are they really? Dark rapidly realises that he is under suspicion from all sides, while the people who he is supposed to be hunting may not be what he is told they are. Captured, beaten and threatened with death by his staff, he discovers a conspiracy that has roots in his own past and threatens the future of Europe. A cleverly twisted tale of intrigue and deception, this is a masterly excursion back to the bad old days of the Cold War. Or were they the good old days? The Times 'An homage to the morally ambiguous Sixties thrillers of Le Carre and Deighton... nuanced to the hilt' Telegraph 'A taut and tortured exploration of betrayal...A cleverly twisted tale of intrigue and deception, this is a masterly excursion back to the bad old days of the Cold War. ' Peter Millar, The Times 01/9