Maria Masterson Books in Order

The Maria Masterson series gathers two early political thrillers that Sarah Dunant co wrote with Peter Busby under the joint name Peter Dunant. Written in the 1980s, they combine pacey plotting with big questions about protest, terrorism and corporate power.

At the centre is Marla Masterson, a woman whose commitment to radical politics pulls her into operations that move far beyond marches and leaflets. She mixes with students, activists and sympathetic insiders who are trying in different ways to hurt multinational businesses that profit from inequality.

Exterminating Angels takes as its starting point a baby milk scandal, echoing real world controversies over the way formula was promoted in poor countries. The story follows a small urban guerrilla group whose members come from comfortable backgrounds but are determined to strike what they see as symbolic blows against an unjust system.

The violence they plan is meant to be clever and theatrical rather than random, yet once explosives and guns are involved the line between gesture and murder becomes hard to hold. The novel is interested as much in the arguments between the characters as in the operations themselves, showing how ideology, guilt and excitement blur together.

In Intensive Care the focus shifts to another high pressure crisis where personal lives, political choices and the workings of large institutions collide. The book continues the series interest in how far people will go in the name of a cause, and what happens when those choices meet the blunt realities of policing, media and the courts.

Across both stories the tone is gritty rather than glamorous. Readers see safe houses, street demonstrations, tired meetings above pubs and the emotional cost of living semi underground. The books feel anchored in the debates of their decade, but they also ask questions about activism, responsibility and collateral damage that have not gone away.

For anyone curious about where Dunants later thrillers began, the Maria Masterson novels offer a snapshot of her early fascination with moral grey areas and with characters who discover that good intentions are not enough once real people start getting hurt.