Brother Death

Totally devoid of principles or moral scruples, Eric Rumbold was the perfect agent for the British during the war, adept as a spy, killer and saboteur. Now he is a mercenary adventurer, adrift in the back streets of Marseilles, making a precarious living as a black marketeer. When he meets the lovely Fiona Lampeter, she knows she’s found the man she’s been looking for. A young boy stands in the way of her inheriting the family fortune: she wants him dead and is willing to make it well worth Rumbold’s while. Drawn into Fiona’s family’s web of intrigue and deceit, Rumbold lays the plans for the horrific and cold-blooded murder of an innocent child . . . and in the novel’s unforgettable climax, at least one character will make the acquaintance of Brother Death!

One of the best selling authors of his day, John Lodwick wrote seventeen novels characterized by their fast pace, sardonic humour and brilliant prose. Though admired by Somerset Maugham and Anthony Burgess and compared with Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh, Lodwick fell into obscurity after his untimely death in 1959 at age 43. This edition of Brother Death (1948) is the first republication of any of his novels since his death and includes a new introduction by Chris Petit.

“Brother Death is perhaps John Lodwick’s most original and ambitious thriller, combining the moral questioning of Graham Greene with the edge-of-your-seat suspense of Geoffrey Household or Hitchcock.” – Michael Moorcock

“Mr. Lodwick writes with great accomplishment, softening his brutalities with a sardonic humour.” – Lionel Hale, Observer

“Mr. Lodwick is a clever writer who goes all out to be tough. It should gratify him to hear that this reviewer thinks Brother Death a perfectly horrid book, for he can hardly have meant it to be anything else. . . . there is no denying that Mr. Lodwick’s style is admirable, that he can make a point with the minimum of words and can be very good company.” – Guardian

“[O]ne of the wittiest and most original talents of his generation.” – Peter Green, Telegraph

“John Lodwick has a richness of invention and a command of words equal to Evelyn Waugh.” – Daily Herald