THE MOSLEY RECEIPT

Return of the legendary XYY man, Willie ""Spider"" Scott, a reformed cat burglar and ex-con now on the side of the law. When retired Detective Chief Superintendent Torn Moody is found dead in his bath, his daughter doesn't believe he slipped and drowned. She gives Detective Superintendent George Bulman, a liaison between Special Branch and M15, her view that her dad had been working on something private when he was murdered. Bulman calls in Spider Scott. And it is Spider's investigation that leads him to returning to Albany Prison, which Moody'd been checking into, as a plant or fake prisoner. But once Scott's back in prison, he's not only stabbed but the prison governor--despite knowing Scott's a plant--won't let him out again! What's more, Bulman can't get him out either. Someone very high up wants a clamp on Scott and the whole case. What Bulman turns up is a 50-year-old receipt for 30,000 pounds, signed by the former leader of the British Fascist movement. Meanwhile, calling on an Arab terrorist buddy, Scott breaks out of jail. He and Bulman decide that the receipt fingers someone very important. Could it be someone in a sensitive government position has been blackmailed for decades for being from a family of Nazi sympathizers--someone who has evaded his taxes and diverted them to stave off the blackmailer? Neatly paced, with full-bodied characters and a paranoiac sense of real mystery like the early Graham Greenes.