Book excerpt: Methuen, a seasoned survivor of countless spy missions thrust upon him by the Old Etonians running the Awkward Shop (as the British Secret Service was called), feels he needs a respite from it all. He is looking forward to some trout fishing in Scotland. But when his superior, Dombey, explains that something strange is afoot in the Balkans, Methuen's curiosity is immediately aroused. A fellow British spy has been murdered on a remote mountainside in Serbia by the White Eagles - underground Royalists - presumably because he fell afoul of their life-or-death struggle against Tito and the Communists. What the Royalists are up to is a mystery Dombey wants Methuen to solve. The Cold War - weary Methuen feels his blood stir. At the very least, he thinks, the trout fishing ought to be excellent. Setting up camp in a cave deep in the Serbian countryside, Methuen baits his hooks and waits for the contact who will lead him into the deeper water of the mystery. He finds out soon enough that his mission involves far more than sport fishing - his life is the one on the line. Hunted by both the Communists and the White Eagles, Methuen is played to his limit. He fights for his life, summoning every ounce of his strength as he gets pulled into a roaring cataract of events that eventually lands him on a dizzying mountain peak - and reels readers in for a tour-de-force climax that will leave them breathless.