This is book 11 of the "David Audley" series.

This note contains spoilers for the book.

I've also got a general page on Anthony Price.

Another historical one, but this one is one of my favorites. Set in 1957, after the Suez disaster (and the second Arab-Israeli war), Sir Eustace Avery (and Fred Clinton) are starting up a "Research and Development" group in intelligence, and they want Audley. Captain Roche is recruited to go do the recruiting.

Roche has his own problems -- he's a double-agent for he Soviets, for one thing. For another, he's a loser, not really up to the R&D standard (which is ruthless long-term intelligence people and the cream of the Oxbridge colleges).

Luckily, Audley wants to come back to work for Clinton. Unluckily, he's returned the secret papers he was holding for his old enemy Etienne d'Auberon. Luckily, the Russians have their own copy (since, while it's all true, it was also deliberately fed to the West to keep us from interfering as they put down the unrest in eastern Europe). So Roche with his KGB controller frames a plan to make it look like d'Auberon gave him the papers, while actually delivering the Soviet copy.

Since Roche's work for the KGB has been known all along, this is exactly what Clinton wanted to happen. He needed the authentic papers to properly sink his boss "Useless" Avery. However, Algerian separatists attack the tower under the impression that the briefcase contains plans relating to them. And the last existing Delaroche Royale car is destroyed.

This is one of the twistiest books, and has quite a range of characters -- Mossad, CIA, and KGB as well as British Intelligence all well-represented.

The source of Audley's private money is also discovered.