The Antagonists (Haggard novel)

The Antagonists is a 1964 suspense novel by the British author William Haggard published in England by Cassell and in the United States by Ives Washburn.

A Colonel Charles Russell of the Security Executive, a not entirely imaginary British counter-espionage organization, while not a protagonist in the technical sense, holds the story line together in the background by his operations, while the characters in the foreground carry the action.

Gorgan, however, although a relatively young, hard-living bon vivante, also has a serious neurological issue and he collapses immediately upon arrival in England and is rushed to a private hospital in the countryside where he will spend weeks in fitful recuperation.

[3]Kirkus Reviews wrote: Col. Charles Russell, last seen in The High Wire, is a scrupulous spy who does not care to employ methods that England's enemies and allies occasionally stoop to.

"We musn't be caught out cheating," his supervisor tells him and, reluctantly, he takes his elegant gloves off and gets into the fray surrounding Gorjan, a top level scientist from an iron curtain country that everybody would like to keep.