A couple finds their perfect beach vacation shattered when MI5 use their villa to spy on the crime boss next door in the newest thriller from the "best spy novelist ever" (Philadelphia Inquirer)
MI5 officer Winnie Monks has never forgotten - or forgiven - the brutal murder of a young agent on her team at the hands of a former Russian Army officer turned fixer and criminal known as the Major. Now, ten years later, she learns that the Major is travelling to a villa at the popular Spanish holiday destination Costa del Sol, and she asks permission to send in a surveillance unit.
The spooks locate an empty property near the Major's: the Villa Paraiso. It's perfect to spy from - and as a base for Winnie's darker, less official, plans.
But it turns out the villa isn't deserted. The owners have invited a young British couple to house sit while they are away. Jonno and Posie, a new couple, think they are embarking on a romantic, carefree break in the sun. But when the MI5 team arrives in paradise, everything changes-their holiday is about to become a terrifying journey into the violent global business of organized crime in The Outsiders by Gerald Seymour-a sophisticated thriller from a renowned master.
"Those [Seymour] sends off into dangerous territory are, in fact, his readers. With each book, we enter a dangerous universe, and are totally involved with utterly plausible characters, faced with moral choices that are rarely straightforward."
The Independent (UK)
"Seymour again deploys a sizable cast of very well developed characters and a complex but utterly believable plot to produce another terrific read. Winnie is luminous, a force of nature. The Major is as cold an evildoer as fiction will see this year. Another 10 characters are similarly compelling, even the nameless Latvian policeman working in The Hague who serves as Seymour's Greek chorus, explai
Booklist
"Seymour keeps the book's motor humming, changing scenes and points of view with expert timing… A fresh Spanish setting, a stream of characters with great nicknames like "the Tractor," and a mix of British, Eastern European and American crime fighters make Seymour's 29th novel one of his most entertaining."
