Ross Thomas: The Backup Men (USA 2011)

From the Publisher:
A saloon owner and a former CIA agent team up to help a pair of assassins escape death
The twins who walk into Mac McCorkle's bar look identical, despite their differing genders. Their names are Wanda and Walter Gothar, and from the steel in their eyes it's apparent that their business isn't the friendly kind. They've come seeking help from Mac and his partner, Padilla, an ex-CIA agent who has skulked in the world's darkest corners.

Anxious for a big payday, the twins took an assignment out of their depth, working as bodyguards for a Saudi prince who came to Washington to sign an oil deal. The job fell apart, and now the twins are being pursued by the world's two finest killers -- who take out Walter without breaking a sweat. Now Mac and Padilla are faced with a choice: Save Wanda, or join her in the grave.

Ross Thomas: The Backup Men. Mysterious Press / Open Road Media, ISBN: 9781453228210 (October, 2011), eBook, 269 Kb (ca. 256 p.), $9.99.

Ross Thomas: The Backup Men (USA 1984)

From the Publisher:
A saloon owner and a former CIA agent team up to help a pair of assassins escape death
The twins who walk into Mac McCorkle's bar look identical, despite their differing genders. Their names are Wanda and Walter Gothar, and from the steel in their eyes it's apparent that their business isn't the friendly kind. They've come seeking help from Mac and his partner, Padilla, an ex-CIA agent who has skulked in the world's darkest corners.

Anxious for a big payday, the twins took an assignment out of their depth, working as bodyguards for a Saudi prince who came to Washington to sign an oil deal. The job fell apart, and now the twins are being pursued by the world's two finest killers -- who take out Walter without breaking a sweat. Now Mac and Padilla are faced with a choice: Save Wanda, or join her in the grave.

Ross Thomas: The Backup Men. New York: Harper & Row / Perennial Library, 1984, 221 p., $2.95.

Ross Thomas: The Backup Men (UK 1971)

From the Publisher:
McCorkle and Padillo are back! After their first appearance in THE COLD WAR SWAP, the thriller that put Ross Thomas on the map, and their encore in CAST A YELLOW SHADOW, this irrepressible pair of saloon-keepers who can't keep out of the world of international espionage are back again, drawn into intrigue and murder in Washington and San Francisco.

Their new problem is to protect from assassination a young man named Peter Paul Kassim, soon to become King of Llaquah, a country with recently discovered oil reserves of ninety billion barrels. Peter Paul, "the richest kid in the world", is the target of determined political enemies, and of great interest, for obvious reasons, to a number of American oil companies.

The assignment proves to be the most dangerous McCorkle and Padillo have come up against, and the result for the reader is action, suspense, wit, and the best dialogue being written, all wrapped up with suspense fiction's most delightful pair of characters.

Ross Thomas: The Backup Men. A smashing novel of suspense. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1971, 221 p., £1.75.