Confessor

Herbie Kruger #5

by John Gardner

A terrorist car bomb, and death comes quickly to The Confessor, aka Gus Keene, the best interrogator the Secret Intelligence Service ever had. But he becomes infinitely more mysterious in death when Big Herbie Kruger, torn from self-inflicted retirement, is summoned to delve into the dead man's past. As he begins to peel back the layers of Keen's life, he uncovers a man of hidden depths, a man who knew more than he should about Government secrets.Soon the trail leads Kruger to the unholy alliance of a renegade IRA cell and a vicious Middle Eastern terrorist group intent upon wreaking havoc across Europe. Somewhere in their razed scenario lie the clues to Keene's death. But Kruger must pick his way through the chaos of treachery and violence to find them . . .'An exciting cliffhanger' Literary Review'A classic of suspense and betrayal . . . John Gardner is a very classy writer' Daily Telegraph

Genres: Fiction

418 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Before coming an author of fiction in the early 1960s, John Gardner was variously a stage magician, a Royal Marine officer and a journalist. In all, Gardner has fifty-four novels to his credit, including Maestro, which was the New York Times book of the year. He was also invited by Ian Fleming’s literary copyright holders to write a series of continuation James Bond novels, which proved to be so successful that instead of the contracted three books he went on to publish some fourteen titles, including Licence Renewed and Icebreaker.

Having lived in the Republic of Ireland, the United States and the UK, John Gardner sadly died in August of 2007 having just completed his third novel in the Moriarty trilogy, Conan Doyle’s eponymous villain of the Sherlock Holmes series.

Reviews

[wally · Rating 3 out of 5]

8 oct 17, sunday evening, finished this one on the tree stand, 'bout a quarter after five, good story. i liked it. 3 stars. 1st from gardner for me, too, library loan, kindle.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Better and better…

I have come to love the Herbie Kruger series and will at some point re-read them all. They have the flair of Le Carré with the grit of Deighton and a touch of Ma’am Agatha!

This was something of a departure as a spy novel, I won’t say more because I don’t want to spike to plot for anyone, but there are more than a few surprises.

[Mike Hambrecht · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big Herbie’s last adventure

I have been fan of John Gardner since reading my first James Bond novel, Role of Honour. Later I learned he wrote other books as well. I eventually picked up the Secrets Trilogy, which led me to Herbie Kruger and I was hooked.

[Larry West · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last of the Barbie Kruger series as
Nd maybe the best.

[Philip Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb

A really good espionage story full of hard boiled characters and a mixture of IRA and the middle East with a great extra treat of magicians

[Jennifer Pearson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good spy thriller type of book. I thought it was a bit slow to start with but a good book