''Queen's Pawn'' is a 1969 thriller novel by the British writer

Victor Canning Victor Canning (16 June 1911 – 21 February 1986) was a prolific British writer of novels and thrillers who flourished in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. He was personally reticent, writing no memoirs and giving relatively few newspaper interviews. ...

.Murphy p.79 The title is a reference to the chess opening of the same name and the fact that much of the novel's action centres around the

Queen Elizabeth 2 ''Queen Elizabeth 2'' (''QE2'') is a retired British ocean liner converted into a floating hotel. Originally built for the Cunard Line, the ship, named as the second ship named ''Queen Elizabeth'', was operated by Cunard as both a transatlantic ...

ocean liner An ocean liner is a passenger ship primarily used as a form of transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). Ca ...

. It was his first novel after finishing the

Rex Carver Rex Carver is a fictional British private eye created by the prolific writer Victor Canning. He appeared in four fast-paced, irreverently narrated novels in the 1960s. In the book preceding the novels, ''The Limbo Line'' (1963), the Government ag ...

series of spy adventures.

Synopsis

Andrew Raikes a confidence trickster is trying to raise enough money to reclaim his family's ancestral home which had been lost by his father's mismanagement. Barely two months after achieving this he and his erstwhile partner are

blackmailed Blackmail is an act of coercion using the threat of revealing or publicizing either substantially true or false information about a person or people unless certain demands are met. It is often damaging information, and it may be revealed to fa ...

into taking part in a

heist A heist is a robbery or burglary, especially from an institution such as a bank or museum. Heist may also refer to: Places *Heist, Germany, a municipality in Schleswig-Holstein *Heist-aan-Zee, West Flanders, Belgium *Heist-op-den-Berg, Antwerp, ...

on a cruise liner, and make great efforts to identify and eliminate the blackmailer.

References

Bibliography

* Murphy, Bruce F. ''The Encyclopedia of Murder and Mystery''. Springer, 1999. * Reilly, John M. ''Twentieth Century Crime & Mystery Writers''. Springer, 2015.

External links

Full bibliography
by John Higgins

1969 British novels British crime novels British thriller novels Novels by Victor Canning Heinemann (publisher) books {{1960s-thriller-novel-stub