Former homicide detective and CIA agent Lemuel Gunn left behind the Afghanistan battlefield for a trailer in New Mexico to forge a new career as a private investigator. Out of nowhere comes Ornella Neppi, a woman making a mess of her uncle's bail bonds business. She asks Gunn to track down the source of her troubles, a man named Emilio Gava, who has jumped bail after being arrested for buying cocaine. But no photos of Gava seem to exist.As Gunn begins his search for a man it seems that someone is protecting, hitting dead end after dead end, he starts to suspect that Gava might not exist at all.The grittiest novel yet from the masterful Robert Littell, A Nasty Piece of Work is unmissable, powerful reading. As Gunn's game of cat and mouse unfolds - every step leading him closer to the truth - he draws ever closer to an unseen enemy's line of fire.'If Robert Littell didn't invent the American spy novel, he should have' Tom Clancy.

'Robert Littell is the author of many superb cold war-era spy novels, of a literary quality that makes it reasonable to call him the American John le Carre' Guardian.'Robert Littell has long been among the subtlest of espionage magicians' The Sunday Times.