Jack Carter and the Mafia Pigeon

The final novel featuring Jack Carter (Get Carter, Jack Carter’s Law) has London’s slickest operator journeying to a Spanish villa to protect a wise-cracking Italian-American mobster. Jack Carter is not thrilled when his frustratingly unprofessional employers—London mob kingpins Gerald and Les Fletcher—force him to take a vacation. Jack doesn’t like leaving the business in other people’s hands, but especially not to a couple of ponces like Gerald and Les. Still, the company villa in Spain promises sunshine and some time to plot his next move. Jack has been fooling around with Audrey—Mrs. Gerald Fletcher—and the philandering couple are plotting a getaway that includes quite a bit of the company’s funds. Jack soon discovers that he’s on anything but a vacation. A cowardly house steward and a knuckle-dragging American gangster are already at the villa. According to the motley pair Jack has been sent to protect the American, who has turned informant. When the steward’s niece and then later Audrey herself show up, Jack is in for bigger surprises yet. And there are few things that Jack Carter hates more than surprises. Ted Lewis provides a first-hand glimpse into the inner workings of British organized crime in the 1960s, where pornography and extortion are the coin of the realm and there no such thing as honour among thieves.