The Freedom Trap (1971) - Desmond Bagley Audiobook

Written by Desmond Bagley
Read by Paul Tyreman
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Slade Series, Book 2
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Release date: August 17, 2017
Duration: 09:23:29

Action thriller by the classic adventure writer set in Malta. Loosely based on the escape of George Blake from prison five years before.

Joseph Rearden is a better-than-average crook from South Africa with a jail conviction on his record. In London, he meets an agent of the British Government called Mackintosh, who recruits him for a new and deadly assignment - to snare The Scarperers (a notorious gang of criminals who organise gaol-breaking for long-term prisoners) and Slade, a notorious Russian double agent whom they have recently liberated. Rearden is asked to rob a postman with a package of uncut diamonds, for which he will be caught and sent to jail in the hope that this will attract the attention of the Scarperers. Thinking that this will be an easy score, Rearden accepts. He is successful, but finds that he has been freed by the Scarperers to help fulfil their own evil political agenda. The trail goes to Malta, where Rearden must outwit the Scarperers in order to save his own life.
Bagley carried over the Slade character from Running Blind.

In 1973 it was made into a film entitled The Mackintosh Man, starring Paul Newman.