EXOCET - Book review

 

Jack Higgins’s 1983 thriller Exocet was fresh off the press roughly a year after the Falklands War and presciently deals with Argentina’s search for additional Exocet missiles, as at the outset of hostilities Argentina only possessed very few.

Brigadier Charles Ferguson is head of an adjunct to the British Secret Intelligence Service, Group Four, directly responsible to the PM. Ferguson’s top man is Major Tony Villiers in the Grenadier Guards, attached to the SAS.

Villiers is divorced; his wife was Gabrielle Legrand. They used to work together undercover. She is tasked by Ferguson with getting to know Colonel Raul Carlos Montera, Special Air Attaché at the Argentinian Embassy in London. She must find out what the Argentine intentions were regarding the Falkland Islands.

Galtieri and Dozo figure in the story, as you’d expect.

Businessman Felix Donner is successful – and an illegal arms dealer. He has links with Russia. And he is hired by the Argentinians to obtain a ship-load of Exocets, weapons that could win the war. As the weapons are manufactured in France, that seems a likely place to make a deal...

Villiers is pulled out of the Falklands – he’s part of a four-man reconnaissance team and sent to France to thwart Donner.

The story is non-stop, switching scenes and countries at a fair lick, and never lets up, in the usual Higgins manner. The relationship between the pilot Raul and Gabrielle is handled well and creates tension. Of course history tells us that the additional Exocets were never obtained.

The manipulative General Ferguson appears in other books by Higgins. Interestingly, in Port Stanley, FI, there’s a Villiers Street. Having recently read The Falklands War by the Sunday Times Insight Team (1982), it is quite evident that Higgins read this account for background verisimilitude, and uses the facts convincingly.

Editorial note:

Higgins mentions a Smith and Wesson Magnum revolver with a Carswell silencer (p3). I could be wrong, but I thought it was very rare for a revolver to have a silencer fitted. A Magnum pistol, fine.

His character Dillon’s favourite handgun is a Walther PPK with Carswell silencer...

THE HUMAN FACTOR - Book review

Graham Greene’s 1978 novel The Human Factor is a gripping and believable story about spies without gunfire and hectic action, but plenty of suspense, tension, intrigue and perfect characterisation. 

Maurice Castle is an aging agent in MI6, working in the African section with a younger man, Davis. His new boss is Daintry who has been brought in to review various sections as a leak is suspected. Castle was previously deployed in apartheid South Africa where he fell in love with one of his black agents, Sarah. When his relationship was about to become an embarrassment he fled with her, aided by local Communist Carson. Now working in London, Castle is married to Sarah and has adopted her young boy fathered by another.

Gradually, as the investigation into the supposed leak ensues, suspicions fall upon young Davis… It would be unreasonable to reveal more.

The sleight-of-hand of the people involved, such as C himself, Sir John Hargreaves, and the firm’s creepy doctor Percival provide suspense and tension. The arrival of Cornelius Muller, a powerful man in South Africa’s BOSS, assigned to liaise with Castle on the secret operation Uncle Remus adds drama, since Muller had known Castle in South Africa. Loyalties are questioned; everything is not what it seems; and the morality of Castle’s seniors are decidedly dubious. All the characters are rounded, and seemingly flawed – that is, very human.

Intriguingly, Davis, a tippler, tends to mix his whiskies, notably White Horse and Johnnie Walker: ‘You know, this blend of mine tastes quite good. I shall call it a White Walker. There might be a fortune in the idea – you could advertise it with the picture of a beautiful ghost…’(p66) I wonder if George R. R. Martin stumbled on that moniker when creating his Game of Thrones (1996)?

Greene wanted to get away from the violence and action depicted in popular espionage fiction; in his experience the real thing was more down-to-earth, though doubtless treacherous, and slightly sleazy. After attending a funeral, Daintry has a drink or two with a few people he’d met at Sir John’s house party. Daintry is quizzed about his work: ‘one of those hush-hush boys. James Bond and all that.’ Another states ‘I never could read those books by Ian.’ Another reckons the books were ‘too sexy for me. Exaggerated’ (p165).

This is a book about sacrifice, disillusionment, and love. Greene’s eye for detail, the telling mannerisms, and the secret world’s manipulation of people are laid bare, uncomfortably so. This is as good as any John Le Carré novel.

Editorial note

We writers are advised not to use character names that begin with the same letter or seem or sound similar. I can’t see why Greene was fixated on similarities of names: Castle and Carson. Then there was another ‘c’ – Cynthia, the secretary Davis pines for. Not that it affected the story at all. So much for advice to writers, hm?

SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL - Book review

The University: Book One by Terrence McCauley is like it says on the cover, a fast-paced thriller. Highly original too.

Way back in the early 1970s there was a sci-fi detective series called Probe starring Hugh O’Brian as agent Hugh Lockwood. The series concerns the so-called World Securities Corporation, a high-tech international private investigation company that employs field operatives—the elite of whom are aided by implanted audio receivers and who carry Scanners, tiny video camera/telemetry units which can be attached to tie clips or other jewellery. The most common method is to wear the Scanner on a ring, enabling it to be discreetly aimed. Two other agents Tony Franciosa and Doug McClure. They’re in constant contact with the probe technical staff. At the time I thought this was great stuff.

Now move to the present and we have an agency that is ten or even a hundred times better than depicted in Probe. The University is a non-government intelligence network. OMNI – the Optimized Mechanical and Network Integration protocol – was now far-reaching, thanks to advances in artificial intelligence and satellite assets.

Heading The University is the Dean.

One of the Office Heads is James Hicks; he’s ex-special services and knows how to handle himself. He has worked for the Dean for almost two years but had never met him.

Hicks has access to the OMNI satellite feeds, able to spy on and listen to suspects and enemies alike. And of course OMNI can perform instant translation of languages overheard. Omniscient, indeed.

Hicks also has access to all kinds of useful people, one of whom is Roger, who is a master at interrogation. Quite a chilling creation, is our Roger.

For this latest mission Hicks is thrown by the fact that an asset has seemingly been turned against the University. Many of the assets he recruited were unsavoury men and women, but they all had something in common: they could be useful when called upon for certain tasks required by The University. In fact, as Hicks observed, ‘They’d all done things that had opened themselves to University pressure and blackmail. Any dirt he had on them was their own fault. He’d sooner have sympathy for the devil himself than for any of his potential recruits’ (p8)

There is plenty of non-stop action throughout so that the 323 pages sped by. This could become an addictive series.

Although this is a contained story, it leaves the reader wanting more – and happily there is more. Book Two is A Murder of Crows. Two other books follow... so far.

FFB - Restless

Restless is the William Boyd book (2006) that was made into a TV movie in 2012, starring Hayley Atwell, Rufus Sewell, Michelle Dockery, Michael Gambon, and Charlotte Rampling.  

It is an absorbing novel told from the first person point of view of Ruth Gilmartin in 1976. She discovers that her mother Sally was in fact really called Eve and before she married Sean Gilmartin, she was Eva Delectorskaya. Ruth learns all this from a manuscript her mother drip-feeds her. It’s quite disconcerting to find out that the firm foundation of your childhood is based on something as insubstantial as a myth.

Eva’s story is both interesting and intriguing. She is recruited by Lucas Romer, a mysterious Englishman working for British Intelligence. She undergoes special training in Scotland and then is deployed to Washington DC with a group whose purpose is to bring the Americans into the war and save Britain’s hide.

Then somebody betrays Eva and she goes into hiding. Now, all these years later, she’s sure who the culprit was and she needs her daughter’s help to expose him.

‘Always suspect. Always mistrust.’ Eva lived by these rules and Ruth begins to feel the same way in her workday encounters.

Boyd handles the female perspective well and neatly juxtaposes the past events in Eva’s life with Ruth’s current issues. There’s a brooding menace of betrayal throughout – emphasised by the father of Ruth’s child and Eva’s failure to mistrust.

The wartime period – and the hot summer of 1976 – are captured by Boyd; you’re there, in both worlds, because his writing style is deceptively easy to read yet honed to perfection. He's not too good with the action sequences, though, as the visuals are scant; but we're not reading this for the action but for the characterisation, which is good.

I’ve read earlier books by Boyd and none disappoint [though his later Bond outing (Solo) did, see my comments here].

From this book alone, it’s understandable why he has won a number of writing awards. A pity about the lousy title, though.

 

 

 

Guest blog - Belfast crime - Catriona King confesses!

Today, I’m pleased to welcome as my blog guest Catriona King, a writer who works hard at her craft and is an example to all scribes.

Catriona is a doctor and a member of the Crime Writers' Association. She was raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland and moved to central London to live and work as a Doctor, where she trained as a police Forensic Medical Examiner. She worked closely with the Metropolitan Police in London on many occasions.

In recent years, she has returned to live and work in Belfast, basing her D.C.I. Craig crime novels in the streets of modern Belfast and Northern Ireland, and locating the fictitious crime headquarters of 'Docklands Coordinated Crime Unit' in one of Belfast's oldest and most colourful districts, Sailortown. (She writes briefly about the setting for her novels here:

http://words-in-a-jar.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/new-and-old-meet-in-belfast-catriona.html )

Catriona has written since childhood: fiction, fact and reporting. 'A Limited Justice' her first novel was released on Kindle on 24th August 2012 and in paperback on the 26th October to Five Star Reviews. It followed Detective Chief Inspector Marc Craig and his team, in the hunt for the killer of three people. A second novel in the D.C.I. Craig series 'The Grass Tattoo' was released on 11th December 2012 in paperback and Kindle again to rave reviews, and the third in the series 'The Visitor' on the 29th March 2013 to five star reviews. The fourth book in the series, 'The Waiting Room' was released on May 31st 2013 and follows a sinister cabal called 'The Library Club' culminating in a dramatic confrontation near a major political summit in Fermanagh in June 2013.

Q & A

Since 2012, you’ve had four crime novels published by Crooked Cat. This is a great achievement. You bring a lot of inside knowledge and humour of varying colour to the books. Can you tell me what prompted you to write the series?

I love the crime novels of Ian Rankin and Colin Dexter because, in addition to telling good stories they introduce you to new cities e.g. Edinburgh and Oxford. I wanted to do that for Belfast, not as it was during The Troubles but as it is now in 2012/2013. I've always loved watching crime series and reading crime novels and I had worked with the police in the past and so knew something about the forensic side and the culture, so I thought what better way to combine all of these than in a crime series set in modern Belfast. the stories could be set anywhere but setting them here allowed me to show the country's beauty and humour.

DCI Craig has an Italian mother. I notice that Frances di Plino’s detective is half-Italian, again on his mother’s side. There are already a number of Italian cops popular in fiction, Zen, Brunetti, Montalbano, Ferrara, Cataldo to name a few. Do you intend the Italian connection to loom larger in the future?

There is quite a large Italian/Northern-Irish community and has been for several generations. I wanted to reflect that. I love Italy and it's a country I've visited many times so I felt comfortable writing characters from there. I also wanted to use the Italian side to represent the communities that have settled here, whether from Italy, Poland, Africa or wherever

Italy may play a part in future stories but I haven't thought how yet. DCI Craig's mother Mirella is a classical pianist and my father sang Italian opera. I grew up with music in all forms and it was a link I wanted to bring into the books, however obliquely, and I used  Mirella to do that.

Is there a fifth Craig novel in the offing?

There is indeed. I've just submitted the manuscript so fingers crossed. It's called 'The Broken Shore' and is set on Northern Ireland's North Atlantic coast

How long have you been writing?  What influenced you to start?

I've been writing on and off since school (more off than on because of work). I won my first writing prize when I was five and always loved English Literature. I wrote book chapters for work and many, many work papers. I also did a stint as a medical journalist full time as well.

How do your family/friends feel about your writing?

I think they're quietly pleased .

Are you planning to write any non-DCI Craig books?

Yes. I'm just in the editing stage of a new stand-alone thriller set in New York City. It's called 'The Carbon Trail' and is an espionage thriller. I also have an idea for another standalone novel in my head.

Do you intend to stick with the crime genre or switch?

Switch back and forth I think. DCI Craig is crime, 'The Carbon Trail' is a spy thriller. I'd quite like to have a go at a sci-fi book as well.

A tall order, I know, but what is your favourite book? And why?

It's a book that I read as a child called 'What Katy Did' by Susan Coolidge. It's about a little girl growing up in 19th century America. I loved it because she was a tom-boy like me.

Where do you hope to be in 5 years?

Oh my goodness, I've no idea. I'm so disorganised I have a hard time planning a week ahead!

Where can readers find you?

I'm on Facebook on https://www.facebook.com/catriona.king.90 and my twitter name is CatrionaKing1

My books are on Amazon on 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=node%3D341689031&field-keywords=Catriona+King&rh=n%3A341689031%2Ck%3ACatriona+King

Thank you, Catriona!