The Washermen

The Washermen. (A Commander Allan Dice Spy Thriller)

‘Peter Hill has done it again—a fast moving, action-packed thriller involving the secret service, the police, and underworld criminals.’
Coventry Evening Standard


It is 1979 and Britain has lived with the curse of the sinister Chinese Triads for too long. Only a combined operation by the CIA and SIS can eliminate their deadly cells of activity. But when the chosen hatchet men arrive from Hong Kong, and the list of gruesome Soho murders grows, the powers that be at Scotland Yard and in the Secret Service clash head-on. And Commander Allan Dice, one of the most trusted officers in the Police force, finds himself waist-deep in a dangerous, corrupt and embittered world of rivalry, espionage and violence.

For many reasons the SIS want to penetrate the highly effective Chinese Secret Service in Britain. Repeated failures to do so have now goaded British intelligence into joining with the CIA in a new and extremely questionable undertaking known as Operation Redlight, directed by the unscrupulous Roger Firth.

After the covert arrival from Hong Kong of the three Washermen to disrupt the Chinese Triad cell in London, there is a sudden outbreak of murders. Redlight is thus brought into fierce conflict with Scotland Yard, and it is Commander Allan Dice who has to try to halt the whole deadly scheme instigated by Firth.

Despite opposition Dice’s instincts and experience make him realize that the enemy lurks not only in Soho’s narrow streets, in decaying dockside warehouses and on the Sussex downs, but also within his own sphere of control.

In this brilliant story of detective and intelligence officers at loggerheads, Peter Hill has created a dynamic and compassionate thriller, set against the sinister world of London’s Chinatown. And again Allan Dice, whose personality played so dominant a part in The Fanatics, quietly but powerfully asserts his strange integrity.

Press comments on The Washermen

‘Zippy, intricate Chinese puzzle laid out with high laconic skill…very strong on sinister rituals, seamy metropolitan locations and gut-churning beastliness.’
‘Intricate and skilful… Hill is more than a find’
The Sunday Times

‘Very clever, very nasty.’
Marghanita Laski, The Listener

Peter Hill has recently returned to novel writing and Killing Tomorrow, the first of a new series, Evolution’s Path, is also available as a Kindle eBook. He is currently working on the sequel, The Ladies Game.

Also by Peter Hill, and now published as eBooks, the Staunton and Wyndsor Series,
The Hunters, The Liars, The Enthusiast, and The Savages.
Press comments on the author’s Staunton and Wyndsor Series

‘Exceptionally well told, with satisfying outcome.’
Columbus Sunday Dispatch

‘Lies, gossip, jealousy and a generous serving of bedroom undercover work fail to deter two of Scotland Yard’s finest in this entertaining mystery with an extra twist or two ...or three.’
Pittsburgh Press

‘Peter Hill does a fine job with character, plot, atmosphere and suspense.’
Publishers Weekly

‘… a pair of attractive investigators—the young and aristocratic Leo Wyndsor and the slow-moving but smart veteran Bob Staunton. The case takes them to Cornwall, where a man has been murdered and hung on an old gibbet ... All this is very agreeable, especially in Mr. Hill’s smooth and often sympathetic telling.