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The Predicament
  • Published: 9 September 2025
  • ISBN: 9780241761144
  • Imprint: Viking Fiction
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $34.99

The Predicament

Formats & editions
Tr. Paperback
9 Sept 2025
EBook
4 Sept 2025
Hardback
4 Oct 2025
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Gabriel Dax returns in this elegant, twisting mystery of espionage and obsession and takes the reader deep into one of history's most infamous assassinations.

Gabriel Dax, travel writer and accidental spy, is back in the shadows. Unable to resist the allure of his MI6 handler, Faith Green, he has returned to a life of secrets and subterfuge. Dax is sent to Guatemala under the guise of covering a tinderbox presidential election, where the ruthless decisions of the Mafia provoke pitch-black warfare in collusion with the CIA.

As political turmoil erupts, Gabriel's reluctant involvement deepens. His escape plan leads him to West Berlin, where he uncovers a chilling realisation: there is a plot to assassinate magnetic young President John F. Kennedy. In a race against time, Gabriel must navigate deceit and danger, knowing that the stakes have never been higher.

The Predicament, the second novel in the bestselling espionage trilogy starring Gabriel Dax, William Boyd weaves a masterful tale of suspense, loyalty, love and the dark temptations of spy craft.
  • Published: 9 September 2025
  • ISBN: 9780241761144
  • Imprint: Viking Fiction
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $34.99
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About the author

William Boyd

William Boyd is the author of one work of non-fiction, three collections of short stories and thirteen novels, including the bestselling historical spy thriller Restless – winner of the Costa Novel of the Year – and Any Human Heart, in which the character of Ian Fleming features. Among his other awards are the Whitbread First Novel Prize, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Prix Jean Monnet. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 2005, he was awarded the CBE.

Born in Ghana in 1952, William Boyd spent much of his early life in West Africa. He now divides his time between the south-west of France and Chelsea, where he lives a stone’s throw from James Bond’s London address.

portrait photo of William Boyd

Also by William Boyd

Gabriel's Moon
The Mirror and the Road: Conversations with William Boyd
The Romantic
Trio
Nat Tate
Love is Blind
The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth
See all

Praise for The Predicament

Boyd raises the stakes with his second Cold War novel featuring reluctant spy Gabriel Dax . . . a deft mix of espionage, desire, and moral compromise

iNews

A swinging 60s espionage thriller

Guardian

A faultless evocation of 1960s England, masterful, old-fashioned storytelling. The second novel in a trilogy that’ll leave you wanting more

Saga

Stylish stuff

Observer

One of our most thrilling writers

Daily Express

Beautifully crafted, with echoes of le Carré, Greene and Forsyth, this is a superb evocation of a vanished world, seen through the eyes of a relatably hapless accidental hero

Guardian

Boyd writes elegant prose and tells a convincing story, as he has been doing now for nearly 45 years

The Scotsman