Very good condition first edition, second impression hardcover, with unclipped dust jacket designed by Roger Harris, reflecting price of 16s. net. Signed and dedicated by the author as both James Munro and James Mitchell. Jacket is marked and discoloured, and edges are creased and nicked. Page block head is tanned, and boards are slightly bowed. Pages and text are clear and unmarked throughout. LW
James Munro was the pseudonym of a British writer named James William Mitchell (born 1926) who, in the late 1960s, wrote four spy thrillers under this byline.
The hero is a British agent named John Craig, who works, mostly reluctantly, for Department K. The books, The Man Who Sold Death; Die Rich, Die Happy; The Money That Money Can't Buy; and The Innocent Bystanders were tough-minded, well-written, and well-plotted. They had a genuinely heroic (and intelligent) protagonist, an eccentric M-type boss, and menacing villains.
Mitchell also wrote under the pseudonym Patrick O. McGuire.