Queen's Pawn by Victor Canning

Handsome, brilliant young conman Andrew Raikes is set to swap the hustle for a life of quiet luxury and independence in the English countryside. Then, barely two months in to his new life, a letter arrives from a man even more cunning and ruthless than himself. Raikes is soon blackmailed into carrying out one final heist: a crime more audacious and dazzling than anything he has attempted before. Can he pull it off? And will he be able to free himself from the clutches of his blackmailer?
Victor Canning weaves riches, glamour and darkness through the world of 1960's Britain to create this complex, gripping and highly-readable crime thriller.