Peter Edgar

Cities of the Dead is a novel of the future, but the message it holds could apply equally well to the present day. A series of nuclear tests in the Pacific Ocean have affected certain species of sea creatures, with the result that they grow to more than ten times their original size. People living on the western seaboard of America are terrorised by these hideous leviathan-like monsters and a group of scientists are dispatched to the area to exterminate this menace to civilisation.

Although credited to Peter Edgar, Cities of the Dead was the debut novel of Peter King-Scott, an engineer by profession. Born Peter Edgar King Scott on 8 September 1918, he officially changed his name to King-Scott in 1943. He served as a Captain with the Worcestershire Regiment and as an intelligence officer during the war and returned to industry in 1946, later becoming a full-time lecturer in engineering and management subjects. In partnership with his wife, Margaret P. (nee Stonham), he also ran a small management-consultancy business.

King-Scott died in Portsmouth, Hampshire, in 1993, aged 74.

Non-fiction
Industrial Management. London, Pitman, 1966.
Industrial Supervision. London, Pitman, 1969.
Production Control for Supervisors. London, Collins, 1971.
The Institution of Industrial Managers: A History 1931-1991. London, Institution of Industrial Managers, 1991.

Novels as Peter Edgar
Cities of the Dead. London, Digit Books, 1963.