SPEARFISH

Twenty years ago he'd been Captain Michael Crofts, Parachute Regiment - before the mercenary recruiters had bought him and his ideals had expired along with the blood of too many men. Now he's retired … or he thinks he's retired. So determinedly retired that he hasn't merely hung up his faithful Beretta, he's stripped it and scattered its parts throughout Soho's trash bins.

Then, by chance, he bumps into his old friend Commander Simpson, RN retired … at least Simpson says he's retired … and Simpson bears news of yet another old friend, another mercenary who has, apparently, also retired from the killing trade and now farms peacefully in a remote area of Scotland - although that, to a suddenly-concerned Crofts, seems a highly unlikely story. So much so that he travels up to Scotland to discover the real truth.

… only to discover that he's still very much at war, and that his past is about to overtake him at a most unexpected and embarrassing moment - and that's when Crofts learns that he's going to have to fight simply to stay alive, never mind enjoy any kind of retirement.

The trouble is, to do that he has to put together a jigsaw puzzle that somehow contains a thinking fish; a gutless little pervert called Thomson, who was seemingly found not merely dead but horrifically mutilated into the bargain; a Mermaid; an impossibly-resurrected killing machine, and a large number of Woollen Men chillingly ready to commit mayhem at the drop of a hat … not to mention Commander Simpson RN, who seems to be less and less retired the more Crofts sees of him. Rather like Crofts himself, in fact …

Ingenious, fast-moving, marvellously exciting, Spearfish is Brian Callison at his breathtaking best.

There can be no better adventure writer in the country.  Alastair MacLean.