A dead don brings Charlie Mortdecai out of retirement for one last case

Kyril Bonfiglioli’s final novel follows the Hon. Charlie Mortdecai from adventure to misadventure via Jersey and Moscow to a final showdown in a Buckinghamshire bungalow of unparalleled hideousness. Tackling en route an unhealthy sprinkling of well-seasoned academics, a cryptic monk, an aristocratic Chief Constable, and more spies than you could shoehorn into a black stretch limo, Mordecai finds himself embroiled in another mission of international insecurity after the death of a lady don in Oxford. Left unfinished at the time of the author’s death, the celebrated satirist and parodist Craig Brown supplies the penultimate, plot-resolving chapter.