The Unquiet Sleep

The Unquiet Sleep by William Haggard is a British novel about a miracle drug gone wrong or potentially wrong. It is a drug manufactured by a pharma company in which the Junior Minister of Social Welfare or Parliamentary Secretary as he was called in the novel was working previous to his political career. The drug has some powers but not tested fully so is sent to the laboratory for full check. Meanwhile Greek Cypriot gangsters are interested in the drug to black market it and earn some money. The kingpin of the drug lords one Dick Asher ingratiates himself with the wife of this minister who is philandering. The junior minister's boss the senior minister Robert Seneschal is in trouble with the Prime Minister for the handling of this affair. Meanwhile Colonel Charles Russell heading a fictional Security Executive a kind of non official dirty works department and his lieutenant one Rachel Borrodaile who has previous experience in the French Resistance get into the act and try to sort things out. William Haggard a.k.a. Richard Henry Michael Clayton has written a lot of fictional thrillers set in the 1960s tto 1980s. His narrative in this novel becomes ponderous at times, when he goes on describing the procedures at Whitehall or when the characters go on a silent dialogue with their thoughts. Goodreads 3/5