When Erik Make Loud, retired rock star and a major World War Two nut, hires Cordelia, the Paperback Sleuth, to track down a series of lurid paperbacks about his favourite global conflict—the “Commando” novels by the blatantly pseudonymous Butch Raider—it seems like a routine job. But Cordelia soon discovers the final novel in the series, the incredibly rare Commando Gold, is all but impossible to track down. The books’ creator—real name Monty Harrington, once a promising young poet and now a depraved drunk—proves easier to find.

Writing pulp war stories didn’t come naturally to Monty. Until he met someone who knew all about such stuff during a pub crawl; a genuine ex-commando who, for the price of a pint or two, was willing to provide Monty with authentic anecdotes. Too authentic, it turns out…Because Commando Gold reveals the details of a real-life commando mission. At the time the mission was top secret.

And all these years later, someone is quite prepared to kill to keep it so.