SINGLE & SINGLE - Book review

John le Carré’s novel Single & Single was published in 1999 and deals with the world of finance after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the USSR, though of course it’s much more than that!

It begins in the present (1998) with Mr Wisner, a lawyer who worked for the finance company the House of Single & Single, facing the gun-toting Alix Hoban in Turkey. Wisner is aware that Hoban is affiliated to the Single firm and cannot understand why he is being held at gunpoint. It’s no spoiler to record that Wisner is shot dead (since it’s in the blurb!) A bit of a mystery.

Another mystery is in the form of Oliver Hawthorne. He’s is a peripatetic magic man, a conjuror, but there seems something unusual about his identity and past. He is wanted urgently by his bank manager (they had them in 1998, apparently).

Other mysteries include a Russian freighter being arrested and boarded in the Black Sea. And the disappearance of the Head of Single & Single, ‘Tiger’ Single, father of Oliver.

Mysterious Nat Brock is called in to investigate Mr Wisner’s purported suicide. He is not what he seems, a British Customs Officer...

Four years earlier, Oliver absconded from the firm of Single & Single when he discovered that his father was involved in financial chicanery with the Russian underworld, including money laundering and the dubious sale of Russian blood transfusions to America: ‘Human Blood is a Commodity – US Federal Trade Commission, 1966’) His conscience wouldn’t permit him to continue in the business, so he, ‘the idealist, the walk-in of all time’ contacts Brock...

Brock uses Oliver undercover and debriefs him when he can. ‘He had a priestly tone for these occasions. It went with a deep-felt sense of caring. When you take on a joe, you take on his problems, he would preach to his newcomers. You’re not Machiavelli, you’re not James Bond, you’re the over-worked welfare officer who’s got to hold everybody’s life together or somebody will run amok’ (p203).

‘Wasn’t that awful for you? Discovering your own dad was a crook and all?’ (p187). Reading this, I was reminded of Le Carré’s earlier masterpiece, A Perfect Spy, whose titular character, Rick Pym, was based on Le Carré’s own father, Ronald Cornwell. There’s the same love-hate relationship between father and son, and the exposure of flawed character.

Even though married with an estranged wife, Heather, and daughter, Oliver is not averse to carrying on an affair or two. His love-life might be described as ‘complicated’. ‘How is she, darling?’ Katrina cut in, with the special concern that mistresses evince for lovers’ wives’ (p213). Judging from the most recent revelations about his own affairs, the author definitely knew what he was talking about...

Oliver has returned from hiding to discover the whereabouts of his father. Not only for himself, but also to help Brock. It's a story of betrayal and redemption.

There are plenty of telling phrases and paragraphs one comes to expect from Le Carré, such as:

‘His eyes were water-pale and empty, and it was the emptiness that scared her: the knowledge that whatever amount of kindness anyone poured into them it was wasted. He could be watching his own mother dying, he wouldn’t look any different, she thought’ (p287). And: ‘Tractors sticking like slugs to their smear-trails’ (p322). And also: ‘White stubble grew where his brown hair had been, and it had spread over his cheeks and jaw in a downy silver dust’ (p3223).

And there are many varied characters to engage the reader’s attention throughout, not least Brock himself, his wing-woman Aggie, the beautiful but fragile wife of Hoban who is attracted to Oliver, the Russian dealers Mirsky and Yevgeny.

Considerable exposition is thrown into Chapter Seven, with lengthy unrealistic speech paragraphs, which slows down the narrative and causes the eyelids to drop...

Le Carré nearly always tends to play with the tenses. For this book, the narrative is past historic when detailing what is happening ‘now; for the flashbacks, he employs the present tense to depict past events and conversations!

The ending is tense and full of suspense (though not as good as The Night Manager in that regard) but I found it a little rushed. On the whole, however, it was a satisfying read.

'... feels absolutely real.'

"When I picked up this novel about psychic British spy, Tana Standish, and her adventures in 1970s Czechoslovakia, the spy template I thought it would adhere to is the James Bond one. After all, that is already an outsized world and surely a beautiful spy with precognitive abilities could be dropped in fairly seamlessly.

But Nik Morton actually foxed me, by instead opting for the John Le Carré model. This is a gritty and realistic feeling world, with dirt under its fingernails. And it’s beautifully realised. You can almost smell the Turkish coffee and cheap cigarettes in the cafes... But is there any way to make a psychic spy fit seamlessly into this world?

You have your doubts, don’t you?

And yet Morton manages it.

Such is the level of detail and ambition, that Morton soon sweeps the reader up in the narrative and creates such a convincing canvas that we can easily accept the central conceit. Bouncing between different times and locations, he has created a book which feels big in scope, an adventure story with a supernaturally gifted protagonist that still feels absolutely real.

I was expecting a light throwaway read with Mission: Prague, but was glad I got something far more ambitious."

Thank you, F.R. Jameson for commenting on Goodreads.

The full review can be read there. 

Mission: Prague

Available on Amazon as a paperback and an e-book here

'... felt I'd actually been there.'

Amazon 5-star review for Mission: Khyber
 
'First, the detailed descriptions of Afghanistan; I felt as if I’d actually been there. Also, the fascinating history of the area I found illuminating. I liked the way the author further developed his character, psychic spy Tana Standish. In the first two novels she seemed almost invincible. Here, she is more vulnerable, and therefore more rounded. The one negative aspect for me was that I found the descriptions of the weaponry a bit challenging to follow, having never picked up a gun in my life, and some of the military manoeuvres left me a bit bewildered. But that was part of the book’s authenticity: the attention to precision was admirable, and the general atmosphere reminded me of John le Carré’s work. I highly recommend it: clearly the work of an experienced writer.'

Thank you, Maureen Elizabeth Moss 

Available from Amazon as a paperback or e-book here

‘I Was The Cat’

During the Second World War there were many brave individuals fighting with the French resistance to combat the invading forces of Nazism. Perhaps one of the most complex characters to emerge was Mathilde Carré, known by friends and enemies alike as ‘The Cat’.

Mathilde-Lucie Belard was born in June 30 (my birthday) in 1908. Dainty, with dark hair and staring green eyes and a broad sensual mouth, she had a succession of boyfriends at the Sorbonne, but, according to her own story, remained a virgin until twenty-three.

She secretly married a schoolteacher, Maurice Carré, and they went to North Africa and taught. Here, at Ain Sefra, she embarked on an affair with an aristocratic Muslim, a friend of her husband. In 1939 Maurice was posted on active service in Syria and left her behind, their marriage over.

She made her way back to France and trained as a nurse. During the French retreat from the invading Germans, she met, nursed and fell in love with a tank corps captain, Jean. She became pregnant, Jean was transferred away and she miscarried, then contemplating suicide in the River Garonne. Instead, she determined to join de Gaulle and fight for France; however, the British consul in Toulouse advised her to remain in France. She met an escaped POW, Polish airman Roman and agreed to join him in German-occupied Paris. This was what her restless and passionate spirit had craved – glamour, adventure and danger.

Meeting with the undercover Deuxieme Bureau agents, she was given elementary training – codes, recognition of German Army and Air Force formations and the use of invisible ink. She spent her evenings in the bar of the luxurious Hotel Ambassadeurs where the American newspapermen made their HQ. She curled up in a big armchair, her black hair bobbing and her long talon-like fingernails nervously scratching the leather side of the chair, just like a cat. Some wit called her ‘The Little Black Cat’, and it stuck, and in the network she was thereafter known as ‘The Cat’. Their espionage network was known as Inter-allie, and at this period it was successful, providing much-needed information to the British. She began wearing her trademark clothing, a black fur coat and a little red hat. Roman’s mistress was recruited into Inter-Allie and her presence seemed to cause tension, though Mathilde vowed she’d never had an affair with Roman.

Two days after the first anniversary of the network’s birth, Mathilde was on her way to her studio when she was picked up by the Abwehr; she was identified by Roman’s mistress. Apparently, the German Command in Paris had suspected a major Allied spy ring operating in the area, due to the precise timing of the RAF attacks.

She spent a night in a cold dank cell and seemed to suffer a complete moral collapse due to the sudden reversal of her fortunes. She was taken to a warm room fed breakfast and informed by Hugo Bleicher, an NCO who later penetrated several clandestine British networks, and arrested Odette. Bleicher told her she was too intelligent and interesting a woman to remain in prison; if she co-operated, he would set free that evening…

 
Over the next few days she systematically betrayed the remaining members of the Inter-allie network. With Bleicher’s aid, she used a captured British radio to get in contact with London, advising them that though she had escaped the network members in Paris were all captured; and she was believed.

Her relationship with Bleicher was not always smooth; on one occasion he teased by asking her what requests she would make if they decided to shoot her. ‘To have a good dinner, to spend the night in bed with a lover, to listen to Mozart’s Requiem, and to be shot while it was being played.’

While she worked with Lucas, one of the first SOE agents dropped into the area, London discovered that she was a double agent. When Lucas suggested that Mathilde go back to London with him, the Abwehr and Bleicher went along with the idea, believing she would be useful to them in the heart of the SOE.

 
An MTB picked up the pair in February 1942. When they docked at Dartmouth, she was taken to a luxury flat in Bayswater Road, where she was to make herself comfortable; the place was ‘lousy with microphones’. She was de-briefed (interrogated), but also escorted to well-known tourist sights, restaurants and even night-clubs!
 
Lucas returned to France, was captured and questioned by Bleicher; as a result, Bleicher was convinced that the Cat still functioned as an Abwehr spy in London. After some harsh mistreatment, Lucas was eventually sent to Colditz POW camp.
 
Mathilde was sent to Aylesbury Prison and Holloway and then in 1945 she was repatriated. In 1949 she was tried in France. Two of her former chiefs in the Deuxieme Bureau spoke up for her, but she was sentenced to death; it was later commuted to life imprisonment. Late in 1954, she was released. In 1959 she published her own account, I Was the Cat (revised 1975). She died in Paris in 1970, aged 62
 
- Some of the above was gleaned from The Real World of Spies by Charles Wighton (1962).
 
Also of interest:
Mathilde Carré, Double Agent by Lauran Paine (1976)
Gordon Young, The Cat With Two Faces (1957)
 
In the late 1950s I saw a French film The Face of the Cat which was a chilling movie of the French Resistance starring Francoise Anoul; I often wondered if the film was inspired by the above Cat.

It’s interesting that David Cornwell chose the penname John le Carré. He was probably aware of Mathilde Carré’s story. Le Carré is French for ‘the square’.

 
Of course my Cat heroine is not a double agent; she’s simply someone obsessed with destroying a company and its CEO: it begins with Catalyst.

 
The first in ‘The Avenging Cat’ series
 
Catalyst, a person that precipitates events.
 
That’s Catherine Vibrissae. Orphan. Chemist. Model. Avenging Cat.
 
She seeks revenge against Loup Malefice, the man responsible for the takeover of her father’s company. An accomplished climber, Cat is not averse to breaking and entering to confound her enemies. During her investigations, she crosses the path of Rick Barnes, a company lawyer, who seems to have his own agenda.
 
Ranging from south of England to the north-east, Wales and Barcelona, Cat’s quest for vengeance is implacable. But with the NCA hot on her tail, can she escape the clutches of sinister Zabala and whip-wielding Profesora Quesada?
 
… and continues with Catacomb (due for release Autumn 2015).

Film of the book: The Constant Gardener

As yesterday’s book release Catalyst is about a fictional pharmaceutical company, Cerberus, and Catherine Vibrissae’s vendetta against its head, it seems appropriate to look at another work about pharmas: The Constant Gardener.

This is a faithful adaptation of John Le Carré’s novel and, even with the constant flash-backs, it delivers.  The 2001 book was an angry indictment of certain pharmas – big pharmaceutical companies - and their dubious practices in getting drugs tested and approved.  Since then, certain controls have been put in place yet somewhere we can be sure that poor people are still being used without their consent as drug-testing guinea-pigs.  Not all pharmas are wicked.  But the one in The Constant Gardener definitely is.

The music matches the haunting and ravishing views of Africa and was composed by the Spaniard Alberto Iglesias.

The film starts in Kenya with the off-screen murder of Tess (Oscar winning Rachel Weisz), the campaigning wife of diplomat Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes).  Normally, I don’t like stories that begin with a major character’s murder and then persist in giving us flash-backs, but it worked well in the book and it does in the film too. 

Tess was an activist-humanitarian working with African physician Arnold Bluhm (Herbert Kounde). She upset the tightly-knit diplomatic community with her passion for speaking out, particularly against Three Bees Pharmaceutical which ostensibly provides jobs, aid and money. 

The quiet widower, Quayle, slowly digs around the edges of his late wife’s past and unearths uncomfortable mysteries and a few home truths.  Fiennes’s performance is understated and is particularly moving when he finally breaks down in his garden to weep for his lost love.

If this had been a Hollywood film, doubtless Quayle would have gone out for vengeance with a gun or two. Instead, he simply pokes around, unsettling the hidden powers behind the shadowy pharmaceutical company, including Sir Bernard Pellegrin (Bill Nighy) who is in the Pharma’s pocket and just happens to be Quayle’s boss at the Foreign Office. 

It’s an unnerving film, because it tells us that, unless things change radically, the beautiful continent of Africa is doomed by commercial greed and despotism. Nothing new there, then. Worse, though, the incidence of tuberculosis is increasing and will spread into Europe as the mass migration of illegal immigrants continues; prophetic, it seems, since that is the case now in UK. Yes, there is hope, but it is slim. The ending, for me, was unsatisfying, which was the same emotional response I gleaned from the book.  See this powerful and at times emotional film, by all means, but it isn’t really entertainment as the message dominates too much.

Le Carré can get away with switching tense and POV because he’s such a good writer. Within a short space of time, the reader is immersed in his characters’ worlds. I haven’t yet read all his books, but I’ve read the majority, including all of the spy novels. For me, outside his spy fiction, The Night Manager is one of his suspenseful best. Still, you’d be hard-pressed to find a bad Le Carré book; it is soon to be filmed as a TV series.

***

Note: You can read about my fictional pharma, Cerberus Worldwide, in my ‘Avenging Cat’ thriller series, beginning with Catalyst.

 

Amazon UK e-book here

Amazon COM e-book here

Paperbacks are also available at a good price!

Or try getting the paperback from The Book Depository post-free worldwide!