A Prospect of Vengeance

Dr David Audley & Colonel Jack Butler #18

by Anthony Price

The evacuation of Philip Masson's body near Mrs Griffin's cottage resurrects several old ghosts that send the newshounds scurrying to dig in their clippings archives. Rumours, matured with the passing years since Masson's 'disappearance' way back in 1978, once more abound.

But the investigative team of Ian Robinson and Jenny Fielding are already on a trail of discovery that leads back to the end of the Wilson/Callaghan era. Jenny has overheard a snatch of gossip at an embassy party which seems to implicate British Intelligence's David Audley in the original cover-up of Masson's death . . . and Jenny has a personal interest in that affair.

But it is not until the labyrinthine trails come together on a Spanish battlefield that Jenny learns why it is that Philip Masson had to die

Genres: Fiction, Espionage, Mystery

251 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Born in Hertfordshire in 1928, Price was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and Oxford. His long career in journalism culminated in the Editorship of the Oxford Times. His literary thrillers earned comparisons to the best of Graham Greene, Ernest Hemingway, and Robert Goddard.

Reviews

[Jeff Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost certainly a nod (or even a dig) to Peter Wright's Spycatcher, Anthony Price uses his novel "Tomorrow's Ghost" as the basis of plot. Journalists Ian Robinson and Jenny Fielding are looking into David Audley over the death of the latter's Godfather Phillip Masson. Along with former detective Reg Buller they start to dig the dirt for a sensational expose. Instead they wake up ghosts from the past going back to the Wilson/Callaghan era and suddenly it is they in the cross hairs. This is a slow burner of a novel but once it takes off it's a real page turner although I did find the earnest Miss Fielding more than a little self centred as well as annoyingly stupid.

[Mieczyslaw Kasprzyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't understand some of the very negative reviews I've seen... very strange.
I found this book very enjoyable. Yes, there were characters I didn't like but that's par for the course. There was a lot of intrigue and, as is so natural for Anthony Price, a lot of discussing issues in pubs, Indian restaurants, churchyards, even behind railway walls stood amongst the litter and junk of our times.
The story is an interesting one of suspicious death and suspected skullduggery being investigated by people with their own agendas - that is SO real! You can see the way they drive their finding to fit their biases.
I enjoyed it very much but then Anthony Price hasn't let me down yet.

[Beth Friedman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually read via the Audible audiobook, but no Goodreads listing for that. Early comment: It wasn't until well over an hour into the book that I was sure the main characters were looking for a news story and not some sorts of agents. And finished. There was a lot I liked about this book, but I didn't like Jenny and her know-everything, fake-little-girl voice. Though it might have been the reader, I suppose. And I can't tell if it's the reader or the writer that has every girl-child, from five to eighteen, sound exactly like a precocious eight-year-old. However, I did like getting some sort of closure for Frances. Someone in the comments said this one should have been called Yesterday's Ghost, and that would have been an excellent title.

[Andy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the worst of the series. It has a sad plot of journalists trying to uncover what happened in a previous book and clumsy writing where the narrator and the characters keep telling us ad nauseam how clever they are instead of being clever.