Ruari Breslin, the son of a news-magazine owner, is abducted whilst on a skiing holiday with his girlfriend Casey. They are kidnapped in a helicopter and subsequently, the pilot, Casey and the ski-instructor are all killed. The kidnappers are working for Moses Chombo who is due to stand for election to govern Zimbabwe. He is keen to prevent diaries belonging to Nelson Mandela, and which Breslin has bought, from being published.

Harry Jones is just returning from America where he has undergone successful surgery to replace an ear. Harry is a back-bench MP but the Prime Minister is keen for him to become Foreign Secretary. Harry is contacted by an ex-girlfriend - Terri now Mrs Breslin who is desperate for him to help get her son back. Neither her husband nor her father-in-law Sean, who was once in the IRA and hates Harry for being with the SAS out in Northern Ireland some years ago, want Harry's help. Despite the Breslins employing a security company experienced in hostage negotiations they cannot trace where the boy is being held. The kidnappers want the diaries destroyed, but Breslin is only a shareholder in the news-magazine and can't comply. Eventually Harry and Sean (the old enemies) form an unlikely alliance and try to rescue the boy.

This book is set in the future when both Mandela and Robert Mugabe are no longer living and when Obama is no longer President of the USA. The action switches between Switzerland, Italy and England and is fast-paced with many twists, making it an exciting thriller.

I had always associated the author (Baron Dobbs of Wylye) with his Parliamentary novels such as HOUSE OF CARDS; his background of the Tory Party and the House of Lords giving him an insight into world affairs, but he has written four books featuring Harry Jones as well as five historical novels.

I enjoyed OLD ENEMIES and would highly recommend it. It also contains the first chapter of the next Harry Jones thriller THE SENTIMENTAL TRAITOR which promises to be equally gripping.