Lionel Davidson FRSL (31 March 1922 – 21 October 2009) was an English novelist who wrote spy thrillers.

The novel is set in Czechoslovakia during the Cold War, and tells the story of young Nicolas Whistler, a 24-year-old Londoner who is persuaded to take a bogus business trip to Prague which goes horribly awry.

[citation needed] Davidson became one of the handful of living writers to have their first novel appear in a green Penguin jacket.

The Chelsea Murders was also adapted for television as part of Thames TV's Armchair Thriller series in 1981.

[4] Davidson never quite managed to fulfil his early promise to become a major figure in British spy fiction, although his best novels are of high quality.