A book about skull-duggery in the City with a Moriarty-like villain who is eyeing electronic secrets. The descriptions of both the security services and financial institutions are showing their age. Bad guys and good guys are clearly defined and there is little mystery except over the uncertain fate of a central character or two. While the book is competently written, it does not have a lot to recommend it 45 years later.

an old Penguin crime paperback. A commercial crime thriller in the City of London, where "a rundown firm of commercial bankers, Bonavias, is half-heartedly trying to stave off a merger with an upstart firm known as the Bakerloo. But it is not only money that's at stake: personal pride, spite and national policy are involved. Bonavias have a hold on Radarmic, and Radarmic is top secret. Behind the decency of Walter Hillyard and the tycoonery of Sabin Scott yawns a cesspool of intrigue and violence." - jacket notes. ( )