The Last Two Weeks of Georges Rivac

Geoffrey Household

mars 2015 · Open Road Media

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In this riveting thriller that recalls Alfred Hitchcock in his prime, an innocent European businessman is inadvertently caught up in a murderous web of international intrigue and forced to run, hide, or die in the English countryside

A man of considerable ambition, French and British export agent Georges Rivac is always eager to expand his client base, so he agrees without question to do a simple favor for an unknown Englishman. Charged with delivering an item to an address in London, Rivac is surprised to discover that his arrival is unexpected and unappreciated—and he’s shocked to learn soon afterward that his new client is dead. Suddenly the confused businessman is himself a target, pursued by unknown assailants and forced to flee the city, taking refuge in the wilds of rural England. Relying on his wits and dormant survival skills, as well as the help of a beautiful Hungarian freedom fighter, Georges Rivac must now somehow get to the root of the deadly international conspiracy that has placed him in a killer’s sights.

A gripping adventure reminiscent of The 39 Steps and North by Northwest, The Last Two Weeks of Georges Rivac is a thriller in every sense—a masterful novel chock-full of action and intrigue, racing toward its surprising and breathtaking climax.

Quelques mots sur l'auteur

Geoffrey Household (1900–1988) was born in England. In 1922 he earned a bachelor of arts degree in English literature from the University of Oxford. After graduation, he worked at a bank in Romania before moving to Spain in 1926 and selling bananas as a marketing manager for the United Fruit Company.

In 1929 Household moved to the United States, where he wrote children’s encyclopedia content and children’s radio plays for CBS. From 1933 to 1939, he traveled internationally as a printer’s-ink sales rep. During World War II, he served as an intelligence officer for the British army, with posts in Romania, Greece, Syria, Lebanon, and Persia. After the war, he returned to England and wrote full time until his death. He married twice, the second time in 1942 to Ilona Zsoldos-Gutmán, with whom he had three children, a son and two daughters.

Household began writing in the 1920s and sold his first story to the Atlantic Monthly in 1936. His first novel, The Terror of Villadonga, was published during the same year. His first short story collection, The Salvation of Pisco Gabar and Other Stories, appeared in 1938. Altogether, Household wrote twenty-eight novels, including four for young adults; seven short story collections; and a volume of autobiography, Against the Wind (1958). Most of his novels are thrillers, and he is best known for Rogue Male (1939), which was filmed as Man Hunt in 1941 and as a TV movie under the novel’s original title in 1976.