The Night of Wenceslas - Softcover

Davidson, Lionel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 057124288X ISBN 13: 9780571242887

Publisher: Faber and Faber, 2011

Synopsis

Young Nicholas Whistler, dissolute and disillusioned, lives a life of dull monotony in London. Caught up in a petty money-lenders dispute, he finds himself sent to Prague to discharge the debt by carrying out a simple assignment. But this business trip will soon drag him deep into the dangerous world of Cold War espionage and the battle for atomic supremacy. Trapped between the secret police and the amorous clutches of the mysterious and statuesque Vlasta, Nicholas must face the fact that now he is a spy, whether he likes it or not. The Night of Wenceslas, Lionel Davidson's debut thriller, was an instant and massive success upon publication in 1960. Its taut prose and masterful plot pushed him to the front ranks of the genre. It was described by the New Yorker as 'so enriched with style, wit, and a sense of serious comedy that it all but transcends its kind' and by Newsweek as 'downright superb.' Awarded the Gold Dagger Award by the Crime Writers' Association, it was subsequently filmed as 'Hot Enough For June' starring Dirk Bogarde.

About this title

Review:

Quite simply the best thriller writer around. (Spectator)

Fast-moving, exciting, often extraordinarily funny. (Sunday Times)

Brilliant. Don't miss it. (Observer)

Wonderful . . . Davidson manages to engage, thrill, occasionally terrify and is also often very funny indeed. (Peter Hitchens)

Stylish, ingenious and amusing . . . this first novel follows the fortunes of a young and amorous British gentleman named Nicolas Whistler who is inveigled into undertaking 'a small mission' in Czechoslovakia and soon finds himself enmeshed in intrigue and espionage. (New York Times)

So enriched with style, wit, and a sense of serious comedy that it all but transcends its kind. (New Yorker)

Nicolas Whistler, a jaunty young chap with a refreshingly direct - if perilously unworldly - view on life, gets embroiled in Cold War realpolitik. Witty and smart, but the tension is genuine enough. (Times / Sunday Times Crime Club)

A thriller which has lost nothing of its excitement and tension in the fifty-five years since it first appeared, but has of course gained the charm of what has become a period setting. (Shiny New Books)

Original, absorbing and wonderfully entertaining, this is the perfect introduction to the work of an ingenious author. (Lancashire Evening Post)

Book Description:

A nailbiting Cold War thriller from the author of the bestselling Kolymsky Heights.

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber and Faber
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 057124288X
• ISBN 13: 9780571242887
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 228