The XYY Man - Royce Kenneth

Willie ‘Spider’ Scott is a cat burglar, a ‘creeper’, and a good one. Fresh out of prison for the third time, he is made a job offer by British Intelligence he cannot afford to refuse. As the job involves breaking-and-entering and safe-cracking, it is well within Spider’s area of expertise, and having been diagnosed as the carrier of an extra ‘Y’ chromosome which supposedly makes him prone to crime and anti-social behaviour, how can he refuse?

Handicapped by being stalked by the vengeful Detective Sergeant Bulman and having a policeman younger brother he must protect, Spider is caught in a web of intrigue and the threat level increases as the KGB and the CIA become involved.

Alone and on the run in a dark and unforgiving London, Spider has only his underworld contacts to call on for help.

The XYY Man was the basis for a successful television series and two spin-off series featuring the anti-hero DS Bulman. When the novel first appeared, Dame Ngaio Marsh called it a ‘brilliantly sustained thriller’ and the Manchester Evening News rated it ‘A new dimension in thriller writing’.

First published in 1970.