A war-hardened general. A pacifist disguise. A lethal game of cat-and-mouse in the heart of England. Recalled from the blood-soaked trenches of the Somme, Brigadier General Richard Hannay expects to be sent to another brutal front line. Instead, British Intelligence hands him a mission that turns his stomach: shed his uniform, adopt the name Cornelius Brand, and plunge into the eccentric, pacifist underworld of the English garden cities as a sympathetic South African engineer. His target? The mastermind behind a devastating leak of military secrets, a man whose webs reach into the highest echelons of society and the darkest corners of industrial unrest. Guided by the enchanting and enigmatic Mary Lamington and his old American friend John S. Blenkiron, Hannay must navigate a labyrinth of intellectual anarchists, radical labor agitators, and ruthless double agents. Mr. Standfast is a masterful wartime thriller of espionage and deception. As the enemy prepares a massive offensive that could shatter the world, Hannay races against time-and his own fraying temper-to expose a villain whose greatest weapon is his complete lack of a true face. Will his cover hold long enough to save the Allies, or will the double-bluff be his undoing?
