Trouble on the Thames

Spy thriller fiction written in the Golden Age of Murder

"A literary craftsman, who could spring surprises with his humour and sense of suspense." —The Times

Owen Bradwell is a courageous naval officer who returns to England in the 1930s. He believes that his career is over because he has become colour-blind—but with Nazi Germany an increasing menace, the authorities cannot do without Bradwell, and he is assigned a special mission.

A former acquaintance of Bradwell's has been trapped into betraying his country's secrets by a Nazi agent. Bradwell is sent to spy on the spy, and travels down the Thames on a surveillance trip under cover of a fishing weekend. Things soon take an unexpected turn, and Bradwell finds himself in the company of a dead man, and a pretty young interior decorator called Sally.

Will Bradwell triumph over the villains, and will he and Sally fall in love?

This neglected thriller from 1945 is a pacy and entertaining read, rich with the classic twists of the genre: amnesia, blackmail, and a convict's escape from Dartmoor.