Betrayal at Venlo : The Secret Story of Appeasement and Treachery, 1939-45

First edition, first printing. 212pp. In red cloth-covered boards, with gilt lettering on spine. (Boards strong, clean, sharp, and square.) Internally neat, clean, bright and tight. In its original dust jacket, one tiny indentation at head of spine. Dust jacket now protected in an archival-quality mylar sleeve which is not adhered to the volume or the jacket. Kessler tells, for the first time, the real story behind the war time kidnapping of Britain’s leading intelligence agents, Best and Stevens, in November 1939. Leo Kessler was one of the pen names of second world war veteran and historian, Charles Whiting, who also wrote under the names Ian Harding, John Kerrigan and others. Almost always writing on a war or military theme, whether fact or fiction, by the time of his death in 2007, Whiting was known as a phenomena of the publishing industry, with more than 350 titles to his (several) names, most associated with accurately researched and well-written war histories and novels with war background drenched in sex and violence. He has become collectible, especially for novels and histories published under his own name and those of Ian Harding, Leo Kessler and John Kerrigan. We have many titles by the same author – please inquire for multiple discounts.