'Inventive, pacy, political thriller. Keeps sleep at bay' Guardian 'Intelligent action in a realistic thriller' Mail on Sunday What would happen if Greek criminals blackmailed Britain into returning the Elgin Marbles - particularly if the blackmail involved the Queen, and dark secrets about her uncle, the Duke of Windsor's past? A drawing by Raphael is sent anonymously by post from the 'Apollo Brigade' to Edward Andover, Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures. This is followed by two other pictures, all looted by the Nazis from various countries during the war. Andover soon finds himself not only preventing secrets from the Queen's family past being made public, but fighting a demand for the return to Greece of the Elgin Marbles, a demand which turns to violence and murder, as the identity of the Apollo Brigade becomes known and they engage Andover in a desperate fight for survival . . . Peter Watson was for many years a journalist on the staffs of The Sunday Times, The Times and Observer. In 1982, after disguising himself as an art dealer, he exposed a gang of art smugglers who were stealing old-master paintings in Italy and selling them in New York and London. His account of the adventure, Double Dealer ('Enthralling' Time magazine), won a Gold Dagger Award from the Crime Writers' Association and the BBC TV film of the book was nominated for an Emmy. Since then Peter Watson has exposed several other art-world scandals - the trade in fake art deco vases, the smuggling of Etruscan pottery out of Italy and the gold lining stolen from Tutankhamun's tomb. Peter Watson is also the author of the international bestselling thrillers, Crusade and Landscape of Lies
'Inventive, pacy, political thriller. Keeps sleep at bay' Guardian 'Intelligent action in a realistic thriller' Mail on Sunday What would happen if Greek criminals blackmailed Britain into returning the Elgin Marbles - particularly if the blackmail involved the Queen, and dark secrets about her uncle, the Duke of Windsor's past? A drawing by Raphael is sent anonymously by post from the 'Apollo Brigade' to Edward Andover, Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures. This is followed by two other pictures, all looted by the Nazis from various countries during the war. Andover soon finds himself not only preventing secrets from the Queen's family past being made public, but fighting a demand for the return to Greece of the Elgin Marbles, a demand which turns to violence and murder, as the identity of the Apollo Brigade becomes known and they engage Andover in a desperate fight for survival . . . Peter Watson was for many years a journalist on the staffs of The Sunday Times, The Times and Observer. In 1982, after disguising himself as an art dealer, he exposed a gang of art smugglers who were stealing old-master paintings in Italy and selling them in New York and London. His account of the adventure, Double Dealer ('Enthralling' Time magazine), won a Gold Dagger Award from the Crime Writers' Association and the BBC TV film of the book was nominated for an Emmy. Since then Peter Watson has exposed several other art-world scandals - the trade in fake art deco vases, the smuggling of Etruscan pottery out of Italy and the gold lining stolen from Tutankhamun's tomb. Peter Watson is also the author of the international bestselling thrillers, Crusade and Landscape of Lies