Welcome to Asp!
Asp is our new imprint publishing thrillers, crime, espionage and other genre titles, but with a twist. We’re seeking out authors who offer something extra - insights into people, places, culture or politics that stay with the reader when the thrills, excitements and jeopardy are over. We’re inspired by classic writers such as Eric Ambler, Ruth Rendell, John le Carre and their contemporary followers. And because intelligent genre fiction should still be something you pick up at the airport bookstall, we’ve gone back to the classic small format paperback. That’s why it’s Asp - small, but with bite!
what about the girl?
Bern 1962. When Clemency is asked to help Peter Aspinal pick up some film from one of his agents, she jumps at the chance. It’s a welcome change from her routine job as a cypher clerk at the British embassy. And Peter himself is the kind of charming, cultured and slightly dangerous man a girl could fall for. But then the romance turns to terror as the KGB move in. Cut off form help in the Alps, Clemency finds she has hidden skills and courage. But will it be enough to save her and Peter from elimination by their ruthless opponents?
the girl knows nothing
Clemency flies to Argentina to help Hal Linklater, one of Britain’s top agents, track down three fugitive Nazis. But as their quest takes them from the tango bars of Buenos Aires to the wind-swept plains of Patagonia, Hal keeps Clemency in ignorance of the real reason why these three men matter so much. He says the less she knows, the safer she is. But as the hunters become the hunted, would knowing the truth help save her life? Or plunge her into greater danger?
this lower world
Felix takes a break from his unofficial role as assassin of choice to the British Establishment to right some wrongs and eliminate some rival killers on his own account. From New York to Venice, he cheerfully takes on the international aristocracy of murder. But then, amid the fragrant mellowness of England's heartwoods, he faces a more disturbing - and violent - moral dilemma than ever before.