Task of Destruction by Michael Barret, Michael Joseph 1963 First Edition hardcover

This novel is set in country dangerously poised between Turkey and Russia and torn by civil war. Colonel Robert Druce, sometime British officer and now mercenary, has been ordered to capture and kill Khalil Hedayat, Prime Minister of the breakaway province of Hafriz, thus terminating the war. The bribe: fifty thousand tuals, payable in Switzerland. So why shouldn't he accept? A greedy, amoral world, and the devil takes the poor suffering hindmost. 

But Druce finds the task is not so easy after all. Khalil Hedayat is an old man, and doughtily valiant; and he has a beautiful daughter, Shireen. Druce discovers in himself a reluctant unwelcome conscience.

An escape from the dilemma means an escape from the country: an escape through forest and town, amid dangers and suffering, under the guns of both sides in the war. A fast, tense, chase, during which there is, nevertheless, time to alter one's mind. 

The book is in a wonderful condition and still has its dust cover, which shows some wear along the edges, but is in a remarkably good condition with the colours still vibrant. 

It shows only a few dust spots as you open the book and along the outside edges when it is closed, with the rest of the pages practically blemish free. It also sports a price of R3, and you can only but wonder when it was written there.

This is the first edition of this book, published in 1963 by Michael Joseph and printed and bound in Liverpool by Charles Birchall & Sons Ltd.

 For a book printed in 1963 it is remarkable to find one that still has its dust cover, not mentioning the great condition of both the dust cover and the book.