In Graham Greene's final novel a secretive stranger takes Victor Baxter out of a boarding school much like that of Greene's own youth. The "Captain" changes the boy's name to Jim and brings him to London to serve as a surrogate son to a mysterious woman named Liza. Raised in odd, touching circumstances, Jim never comprehends the enduring relationship between the Captain and Liza, and he struggles to understand what love itself is. Although the novel...

"Raven is an ugly man dedicated to ugly deeds. His cold-blooded killing of the Minister of War is an act of violence with chilling repercussions, not just for Raven himself but for the nation as a whole. The money he receives in payment for the murder is made up of stolen notes. When the first of these is traced, Raven becomes a man on the run. As he tracks down the agent who has been double-crossing him while he attempts to elude the police, Raven...

"For Arthur Rowe the trip to the charity fete was a joyful step back into adolescence, a chance to forget the nightmare of the Blitz and the aching guilt of having mercifully murdered his sick wife. He was surviving alone, aside from the war, until he happened to win a cake at the fete. From that moment, he finds himself ruthlessley hunted, the quarry of malign and shadowy forces, from which he endeavors to escape though his mind remains obstinately...