* THE FIFTH NOVEL IN THE BESTSELLING MODESTY BLAISE SERIES * ''The finest escapist thrillers ever written'' THE TIMES''One of the great partnerships in fiction'' Kingsley Amis ''Before Buffy, before Charlie''s Angels, before Purdy and Emma Peel, there was Modesty Blaise'' OBSERVERMischa Novikov has never even considered defecting from Russia until he discovers satellite images of a valley in central Africa which contains untold riches - and he''s the only man on earth who knows about them. Eight months later Novikov dies in a small hospital not far from his hidden treasure, a victim of torture. When Modesty Blaise intervenes to save Novikov''s doctor from being tortured to reveal his patient''s secrets, she herself is taken prisoner. It will take all her cunning, and that of her loyal lieutenant Willie Garvin, to escape the clutches of her vicious kidnapper and his dangerous pets.