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This page lists novels and non-fiction books by Gavin Lyall.

The cover images are for the first edition and for a recent paperback or digital edition.

By Gavin Lyall
- novels
- non-fiction

The Wrong Side of the Sky

Gavin Lyall

1961

"Making a threadbare living flying charter cargos of dubious legitimacy around the Mediterranean, Jack Clay's ambition of starting his own chartering company remains a distant dream. All this changes in Athens when Clay bumps into an old wartime buddy helping the former Nawab of Tungabhadra recover his stolen fortune. Clay joins the hunt, but he is not the only one looking; there are many men – and women – who are prepared to lie and cheat, murder and maim, in order to get to the diamonds first."

The Most Dangerous Game

Gavin Lyall

1963

"Bill Cary makes a precarious living flying aerial surveys over Lapland. When he's hired by a wealthy American hunter, Frederick Wells Homer, to fly into a prohibited part of Finland near the Soviet border, the job seems shady indeed, and when a major crook wants him to go on the hunt for Tsarist treasure, things get messy. With thugs and the Finnish Secret Service already on his tail, matters get worse when Homer's beautiful sister turns up to search for him, and Cary's fellow bush pilots start getting killed off in a series of suspicious accidents. Cary begins to realise that it may all stem from an incident in his wartime past."

Midnight Plus One

Gavin Lyall

1965

"Lewis Cane fought with the French Resistance during the Second World War and gained a justified reputation as a tough and resourceful man. So it's no great surprise when one of his ex-Resistance comrades, now a successful lawyer in the early 1960s in Paris employs him to escort a businessman from Brittany to Liechtenstein for a crucial meeting. There are just two problems: the man's associates don't want him to get there, and the police have a warrant out for the man's arrest on a charge of rape. For Cane, it becomes a desperate race across France, fighting against resourceful and ruthless adversaries and avoiding the forces of law and order every step of the way."

Shooting Script

Gavin Lyall

1966

"Flying charter cargoes around the Caribbean wasn't quite the same as flying in Korea, but it was still a living, and Carr had built up a solid reputation over the years, managing to keep his hands clean. But when he is almost brought down by mercenary pilots flying for the newly instated La Republica government, he realises it is inevitable that things will get messy. As both the new government and the FBI seek his services, Carr takes a job flying a camera plane for a major Hollywood movie in order to escape the conflict. It soon becomes apparent, however, that his new employers have more in mind than aerial shots."

Venus With Pistol

Gavin Lyall

1969

"It seemed like money for old rope. All Kemp had to do was arrange the smooth passage of a Cezanne across the border to Switzerland, and anything was preferable to London in January. But on awaking in a Zurich park with a bump the size of a burial mound on his head, minus the priceless work he'd been carrying, he reckons he may have underestimated the situation. Running into Harry Burroughs at the airport the next day can't be a coincidence, as Burroughs is a fine art dealer, and an even finer crook. If he is mixed up in all this, Kemp knows that from now on he will have to earn his money the hard way."

Blame the Dead

Gavin Lyall

1973

"When Martin Fenwick – rich, respected, loved – is murdered, his bodyguard James Card goes on the hunt for his killers. His only clue, a small package wrapped in plain brown paper, will send Card on a relentless manhunt across international borders and into the clutches of death. Young, beautiful, and very much alive, Lois Fenwick is oddly without sorrow over her husband's death. David Fenwick, the surviving son, is determined to find his father's murderer, and will risk his own life to find them. Card is a man used to action, but now he must unearth the deadly secret that sent his boss on a rendezvous with a bullet."

Judas Country

Gavin Lyall

1975

"Roy Case, ex-Royal Air Force turned cargo pilot, lands in Nicosia to discover that his employers have gone bankrupt. Stranded at a rapidly deteriorating hotel, and assaulted in the street, he realises that the cases clearly marked 'champagne' that he was supposed to be flying to Lebanon actually contain machine guns. Luckily Case's old friend Cavitt is around to help, but no sooner are they rid of the guns than they get caught up in a terrorist plot that will draw them in, and start a hunt for a priceless long-lost relic."

The Secret Servant

Gavin Lyall

1980

A Major Harry Maxim novel.

"A suicide at the Ministry of Defence. A hand grenade through the door of Number Ten. A Czech defector with a file worth killing for... The whole sequence of grisly incidents points the finger at John Tyler. Professor John Tyler. Nuclear strategist and insatiable lecher. The man who will state Britain's case when Europe's think tank on armageddon gathers in Luxembourg. Harry Maxim - SAS major on special assignment to Downing Street - in under orders to watch Tyler's back. The professor is a flawed man. Maxim knows just how flawed. If the KGB's specially-imported hit men don't know, they're certainly acting as if they do."

The Conduct of Major Maxim

Gavin Lyall

1982

A Major Harry Maxim novel.

"Major Harry Maxim, ex-SAS and special adviser to number 10 Downing Street, is about to get drawn into conflict on an international scale. An English corporal, a cabinet convulsion in East Germany, and a double murder in a small West German town all seem to be connected by a dark secret from the past, and it's down to Harry Maxim to uncover before it's too late."

The Crocus List

Gavin Lyall

1985

A Major Harry Maxim novel.

"The assassination attempt on the American president in London bore the hallmark of the KGB. But with Britain about to hold unilateral talks with the Russians over Berlin, why should Moscow Centre rock the boat? Major Harry Maxim smelled conspiracy. Trouble was, nobody wanted to believe him. So the Major goes hunting, taking with him his old mentor from Downing Street days, George Harbinger, and another colleague from former times, the not so old and much more attractive Agnes Algar, MIS. It's all highly unofficial. But that doesn't stop Maxim shooting and pistol-whipping his way from London to East Berlin via the Cotswolds, Eastbourne and Illinois, until he finally tracks down the Crocus List - a group of earnest patriots playing God and soldiers to open the country's eyes to the Russian menace."

Uncle Target

Gavin Lyall

1988

A Major Harry Maxim novel.

"When a prototype, next generation battle tank goes missing in the Jordanian desert, ex-SAS Major Harry Maxim is sent in. Secretly loaned to the Jordanian army for desert evaluation tests, the MBT90 vanished in the confusion of an army revolt. Now it must be found, and if necessary, destroyed, in order to preserve its secrets. But what starts as a simple demolition job is about to turn into a desperate run for freedom as their tank is hunted across a desert wilderness."

Spy's Honour

Gavin Lyall

1993

An Honour series novel featuring Matthew Ranklin and Conall O'Gilroy.

"The year is 1912, and as political animosity rises and wars in South Africa and Greece rage, the dominoes of Europe feel ready to topple. The British Secret Service is beginning to form, and Captain Ranklin, a former Major, is lured into the world of reconnaissance after a demotion. Averse to the concept of espionage, Ranklin reluctantly joins the new Secret Service Bureau; exclusive, elite, but bound to secrecy and subterfuge. Paired with the rugged and morally dubious Conall O’Gilroy, Ranklin soon finds himself in over his head. A routine mission to apprehend a gold smuggler turns sour and the two are set on the trail of a notorious Irish anarchist. In pursuit, they uncover a plot that threatens to shatter the precarious state of peace in Europe, taking them to Germany, via France, and finally to Hungary in the summer of 1914."

Flight from Honour

Gavin Lyall

1996

An Honour series novel featuring Matthew Ranklin and Conall O'Gilroy.

"On the ground-floor of a damp, Venetian warehouse, two men plot an assassination. The year is 1913, and Italy is walking the fine line of peace with the Austrian Empire. To prevent a war and catastrophic consequences across Europe, Italian Senator Giancarlo Falcone must be killed. Back in England, Captain Matthew Ranklin is looking forward to settling into his role as a Senior Agent in the Bureau when his right-hand man, Conall O’Gilroy, calls. O'Gilroy, while guarding one Senator Giancarlo Falcone, has just closely escaped an aerodrome explosion and has fled back to London before any further attempts are made. Before long, Ranklin is caught up in the conspiracy. But who is Falcone, really? Could O'Gilroy and Ranklin be protecting the wrong man? As one false step could echo throughout Europe, the pair are left facing their most high stakes mission yet."

All Honourable Men

Gavin Lyall

1997

An Honour series novel featuring Matthew Ranklin and Conall O'Gilroy.

"A Turkish bandit holds engineers building the Baghdad Railway to ransom, Britain is secretly relieved as the Railway threatens the Persian Gulf oil-fields. Feigning help, the Foreign Office sends the notorious Lady Kelso, once lover of the bandit chief, with Captain Matthew Ranklin and Conall O'Gilroy of the fledgling Secret Service Bureau as 'diplomatic protection'. A journey by the Kaiser's private train to the bandit stronghold leads through ambush, betrayal, murder and bombardment. For there are others - German, Turkish and French - honourably putting their countries' interests above everything. In the misty Turkish mountains, all of Ranklin's military experience and O'Gilroy's back-streets savvy are tested to the full."

Honourable Intentions

Gavin Lyall

1999

An Honour series novel featuring Matthew Ranklin and Conall O'Gilroy.

"When Grover Langhorn is arrested by London police he claims that if he is extradited to France, where he allegedly set fire to the Prefecture, he and his mother will announce publicly that he's the illegitimate son of King George. An honourable King must be saved from himself. It's a delicate affair which requires the skills of Britain's recently formed Secret Service Bureau. Captain Matthew Ranklin and O'Gilroy are brought in to check out the claims and as Ranklin begins to expose the truth behind the concealed facts, he realises there's no fire without an awful lot of smoke."

Freedom's Battle, Volume 2: The War in the Air 1939-1945

Selected and edited by: Gavin Lyall

1968

"An anthology of personal experience.."

Operation Warboard: How to Fight World War II Battles in Miniature

Gavin and Bernard Lyall

1976