Peter Ward is a spy for the CIA.
If he had chosen, Ward could have taken an easy road in his life. When his parents died many years before, they left to Ward and his sister a sizable fortune, definitely enough to keep them well provided for. That would not have been enough for Ward, though, as he had not only a desire for action and adventure but also an ingrained need to do something worthwhile.
To the world outside the clandestine community, Ward is a highly successful attorney whose practice takes him around the world on behalf of his many and varied clients. Only a very few close friends, and his sister, know his real occupation as an agent with the CIA.
As the series begins, Ward has already worked for the Agency for nearly two decades, even after his wife of many years was killed in retribution for his work. Now alone in the world except for his sister and her family, he spends most of his life traveling from one hot spot to another. Though he has an apartment in Georgetown, looked after by a young man he rescued at the end of WWII, he is seldom there.
When he is at home, he is a frequent entertainer of several beautiful women who are successful in their own professions and who do not mind the no-strings relationship that Ward offers. He is highly respectful of them and truly enjoys their company as well as their favors.
In the field, Ward is a lover of good food, good music, and not-so-good women. He is proficient with weapons and fighting without them and his skills with languages is quite good. Best of all, he is a master of disguise, helping him blend in wherever he goes.
Note: Another book, The Coven, is often listed with the Peter Ward series though it is not in the series. There is good reason, though, that the book is often so mistaken. The style with which Mr. Hunt wrote it was much like the one he used to write the Ward novels. He even published the book one year after the last of the Ward books using the same pseudonym (David St. John) that he used with the Ward ones. Add in the fact that the last two Ward books were titled The Sorcerers and Diabolus and this is The Coven and the mistake is inevitable and perhaps that is what the publisher was hoping.