Like a Bullet

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.