The Last Thing He WantedJoan Didion1996

"An impressive, fast-talking, hard-boiled, wise-cracking, tough-guy of a novel" - Philip Hensher, Mail on Sunday

It is 1984 and rumblings of the Iran-Contra Affair are just beginning to stir. Large quantities of lethal weaponry are reaching the Nicaraguan Contras without the official sanction of the US government - but with its complicit knowledge.

Meanwhile, out-of-work journalist Elena McMahon watches as her evasive, gruff father's life slowly ebbs away. Rudderless and lost, she feels compelled by a desire to understand him and resolves to do his bidding, to follow the action to Central America - by escorting a shipment of anti-personnel mines to a remote jungle. What begins as Elena's emotional journey soon becomes a cog in a much larger wheel, setting in motion a powerful political machine of intrigue and violence, political opportunism and murky underworld dealings.

"A masterful, imaginative yet impeccably well-controlled literary thriller" - Michael Thompson-Noel, Financial Times

"[Didion] has a mind like a razor blade, an intelligence to match, and her prose style is a bright star in a dark world" - Carmen Callil, Daily Telegraph

"I read it twice for pure delight" Veronica Horwell, Guardian