The Peril Ahead

Department Z tracks down a doomsday weapon in an edge-of-your-seat spy thriller from the Edgar Award–winning author who sold eighty million books worldwide.

Professor Toller has created a weapon that could change the world as we know it. The threat is imminent as the professor and his formula are kidnapped, and it is left to the head of Department Z, Gordon Craigie, to save the day.


Department Z is a small and little-known faction of the intelligence service. Among the other branches, its work is legendary. The department's agents are scattered across most of the world's capitals and even in smaller cities, and many strange matters pass through their hands. Or, more accurately, the hands of Gordon Craigie and Bill Loftus.


Craigie must take enormous risks as both Washington and Moscow begin to suspect Britain of seeking out such a destructive weapon. His investigation leads him to an English seaside resort where Craigie must track down the men that have taken the professor, while evading the master conspirator who is out to get him. When the conspirator goes after the prime minister, Craigie is in real trouble.


"Mr. Creasey realizes that it is the principal business of thrillers to thrill." —Church Times

"Little appears in the newspapers about the Secret Service, but that little makes anything on the subject probable fiction. Mr. Creasey proves himself worthy of the chance." —Times Literary Supplement