Adam Zawadzki's brutal murder on what should have been a routine delivery to placid Costa Rica shocks everyone at SIS: Zawadzki's lacklustre army career left him with plenty of grievances, but none of them seemed to lead to a violent end.

When Peter Ashton starts to probe deeper into the messenger's background and what he was carrying, he comes up against nods and winks urging him not to look too closely. Jill Sheridan, Ashton's one-time lover, knows something she isn't saying; so does a shady former police detective.

Then an innocent housewife dies during a botched burglary in the London suburbs and the case becomes urgent.

Fast-moving, violent and suspenseful, The Honey Trap is Egleton on top form.