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A Gentleman's Guide To Blackmail: Secrets. Leverage. Loyalty.
Paperback
Series: A Gentleman's Guide Mystery, Book 2
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ISBN13: 9798175085250
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Sep 17 2026
Pages: 518
Weight: 1.36
Height: 1.29 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Sep 17 2026
Pages: 518
Weight: 1.36
Height: 1.29 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Every man has a price. The clever blackmailer discovers what it is without ever asking for money. Julian Blackwood knows that secrets have value.
As a former British intelligence officer, he spent years uncovering them, protecting them, and occasionally using them. But when a new mystery reaches into the hidden history of British intelligence, Julian discovers that some secrets were never meant simply to remain buried. They were designed to create obligation. At the centre of the mystery is HARC-7, a forgotten Cold War mechanism created to prevent any one person from wielding extraordinary power. Six people were entrusted with its authority. No single member could command it.
As a former British intelligence officer, he spent years uncovering them, protecting them, and occasionally using them. But when a new mystery reaches into the hidden history of British intelligence, Julian discovers that some secrets were never meant simply to remain buried. They were designed to create obligation. At the centre of the mystery is HARC-7, a forgotten Cold War mechanism created to prevent any one person from wielding extraordinary power. Six people were entrusted with its authority. No single member could command it.
But safeguards have a dangerous habit of changing when the people who created them are gone.
What began as a carefully divided system of exceptional authority has survived into the modern world as something its founders never intended-an inherited mechanism capable of manipulating institutions, exploiting old loyalties, and turning secrets into leverage. And Julian's father, Edmund Blackwood, helped create it. As Julian follows the trail through London's private clubs, government archives, Savile Row, and the remnants of an intelligence world that refuses to stay buried, familiar names begin appearing in unexpected places. Arthur Pendelton knew more than he admitted. Evelyn Calloway has secrets of her own. Old enemies may not be enemies at all.
And someone believes Julian has inherited a role he never agreed to accept. Soon the question is no longer who controls HARC-7.
It is whether anyone has the right to control it.
Because blackmail does not always begin with a threat. Sometimes it begins with a favour. A promise. A secret kept for someone you love. And sometimes the most powerful response is simply:
No. Sophisticated, atmospheric, and layered with hidden motives, intelligence conspiracies, moral dilemmas, and carefully constructed twists, A Gentleman's Guide to Blackmail is the second Julian Blackwood mystery from Alistair Locke.
What began as a carefully divided system of exceptional authority has survived into the modern world as something its founders never intended-an inherited mechanism capable of manipulating institutions, exploiting old loyalties, and turning secrets into leverage. And Julian's father, Edmund Blackwood, helped create it. As Julian follows the trail through London's private clubs, government archives, Savile Row, and the remnants of an intelligence world that refuses to stay buried, familiar names begin appearing in unexpected places. Arthur Pendelton knew more than he admitted. Evelyn Calloway has secrets of her own. Old enemies may not be enemies at all.
And someone believes Julian has inherited a role he never agreed to accept. Soon the question is no longer who controls HARC-7.
It is whether anyone has the right to control it.
Because blackmail does not always begin with a threat. Sometimes it begins with a favour. A promise. A secret kept for someone you love. And sometimes the most powerful response is simply:
No. Sophisticated, atmospheric, and layered with hidden motives, intelligence conspiracies, moral dilemmas, and carefully constructed twists, A Gentleman's Guide to Blackmail is the second Julian Blackwood mystery from Alistair Locke.
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