To date, I have published 79 stories in the Jeffrey Rand series, all derived from a short story written in 1965, and the protagonist's name at the time was Randelphi.The form and direction of this series, like others of my period, were under the direction of Fred Denny, editor of the Ellery Queen Journal of Mystery Fiction.He suggested that I shorten the name to Rand, and unify the title into the form The Spy of . . .At the time, the James Bond novels and John Calder's The Spy from Berlin were popular, and Fred thought a code-breaking spy would fit the bill. Originally, Rand was the director of the Secret Communications Bureau.I hope this British institution is on a par with John Dickson Carr's Strange Cases Unit and Roy Vickers' No Heads Unit.After 11 years and 32, I decided it was time for Rand to retire.In this day and age of monographs and computer-generated codes, I think this series is getting a bit boring for Rand and the readers.Rand met and married Leila Gade.She is a young archaeologist whose father is Egyptian and whose mother is from England.This is another reason for his retirement from espionage.What I didn't expect was that the stories after his retirement were more than twice as many as those during his service!

The selected 15 Rand novels focus on the relationship between Rand and Leila and his life after retirement.They met for the first time in "The Spy and the Nile Mermaid" and again in "The Spy in the Pyramids" and "The Spy at the End of the Rainbow".These novels are set during the period when Russian troops were stationed in Egypt.In the process of writing these stories I learned (from a wonderful medical treatise by Burton Roche) that swimming in the Nile is very harmful to human health.I also learned that climbing to the top of a pyramid is not as easy as I make it out to be, even though Rand and Layla were in the prime of life.

Leila arrives in England in "Spy on Leave" and shortly thereafter, they get married.She was a professor of archeology at the University of Reading, outside London, and they also bought a house in the country.But Rand is far from a true retirement.The London side kept calling him back to perform missions all over the world, and Leila also showed her skills to help him.In the story of "The Spy and the Roman Cat" she followed him to Moscow, and in "The Spy and the Labyrinth" they both returned to Egypt. Layla is kidnapped in "The Alone Spy" and goes on a mission in New York alone in "The Unwanted Spy".After the end of the Cold War, they went to Scotland together, and this article "Spies and Healing Holy Water" came out.It's back to their favorite places in "Day of Doom in Egypt." In "The Man From the Nile K", a Russian who claimed to be Leila's old lover appeared in Reading.

Of the last five stories included in this book, she plays a minor role in four of them, but each of them is included for special reasons. "Waiting for Mrs. Ryder" is included in "Oxford Spy Fiction", which is probably the most powerful combination of espionage and reasoning in all my works.Sue Gryffindor will be included in "The Best American Mystery Fiction of 1998", and its title fits perfectly with this anthology. "A Sack of Coconuts" won an Anthony Award for best suspenseful short story of the year.And "The War That Never Broke" is my favorite.

For longtime readers of this series, I would like to say a few words about Rand's name.His name was Jeffery, or more accurately C Jeffery Rand.This was mentioned in the preface to my earlier collection of short stories, Spies and Thieves.Over the years, in some stories, his name has often appeared as the more traditional spelling Jeffrey.The way the name is spelled became an important thread in one of the stories included in this book, so we tried to unify it in this book. To Rand fans old and new, I hope you enjoy the series that has dominated my writing career for nearly 30 years.My special thanks go to Sandy and Doug Greene for bringing these stories together for publication.And Janet Hawkins, editor of the Ellery Queen Journal of Mystery Fiction for the past 10 years.