British journalist and book reviewer Charles Cumming has been tagged the best of the new generation of British spy writers who are taking over where John le Carré and Len Deighton left off, which is going a bit far for mine, though having started at the beginning I’m inclined to work through what’s on the shelves in the local library in sequence, even though there’s not a great deal of carry over from one title to the next.
Read:
- A Spy By Nature (2001) which reflects Cumming’s experience of being approached by British Intelligence but not being accepted for actual employment. That’s what happens to Alec Milius,a twenty-something bloke in a nowhere job who’s just broken up with his long time girlfriend when he’s approached by one of his diplomat father’s old colleagues. There’s an extensive evaluation process, which is thoroughly detailed and remarkably readable which Alec eventually flunks. Dad’s old acquaintance, however, has a one off gig selling doctored Caspian Sea oil exploration data to the CIA, who would, of course, twig to the identity of a regular agent..
- The Spanish Game (2006) Six paranoid years after the events in A Spy By Nature Alec Milius is living in anonymous exile in Madrid, constantly looking over his shoulder, checking his apartment for bugs, monitoring his rear view mirror for tails, using diversionary tactics going out for dinner and switching hotel rooms after check-in for assignations with his married lover. He’s not, however, that smart. His lover is married to his boss, and despite all precautions there are a number of interested parties checking him out while he spins out the financial proceeds from his earlier exploits with part time consultancy for an English investment bank. That role sees him sent to check out investment options in the Basque country, where he meets a well-known separatist, who subsequently goes missing and is then found murdered.
Unable to avoid becoming involved, Alec is approached by a Basque journalist, kidnapped, tortured, entrapped and betrayed by a variety of p[layers who aren’t what they seem. Tgging Cumming as the new Le Carre is taking things a bit too far, but the plot line has enough twists and turns to keep the reader turning the pages.
- The Trinity Six (2011) where Sam Gaddis, professor of Russian history at University College London, divorced and up to his ears in debt, has published a biography of former KGB officer and current Russian President Sergei Platov. At his book’s launch party Gaddis is approached by an attractive young woman who wants to hand over an archive of material collected by her mother, and he’s already on the verge of putting another project together with friend and journalist Charlotte Berg, who’s on the verge of uncovering a sixth Cambridge spy, a colleague of Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Kim Philby, royal art adviser Sir Anthony Blunt, and intelligence agent John Cairncross, who’ve gone down in history as the Cambridge Five. Something like this would, of course, be a best seller, and the financial salvation of Gaddis, whose issues with the taxation authorities are the least of his financial concerns.
Hard-living Charlotte, however, is taken out by what seems like a heart attack, but from the reader’s perspective we know she was murdered. Gaddis, still desperately in needs of a substantial cash influx, pursues the sixth man story and finds evidence that a member of the ring named Edward Crane, declared dead in a London hospital in 1992, may be alive and willing to talk. Suspicions are confirmed by the systematic elimination of anyone who knows the details of Crane’s supposed death, which was faked by by MI6, though it’s the nasty Russians rather than the notional good guys who are doing the eliminating.
In the search for the truth behind the Crane story one key question keeps recurring. Why are both the British and Russian authorities looking to keep the identity of the sixth spy unknown. Obvious enough from the British point of view, given the disruption the other five wrought on Her Majesty’s Secret Service, but what’s the secret the Russians are trying to keep under wraps?
A highly enjoyable read that runs along at a merry clip. Expect the Investigate availability of list to shorten considerably and future titles to be eagerly grabbed.