House of the Hunted by Mark Mills

Published by Random House on April 3, 2012

House of the Hunted begins in midstream, as if it were the sequel to a novel that had already set up the plot and established the characters.  It is 1919 in Petrograd.  As Irina Bibikov is surreptitiously released from prison, Tom Nash, who orchestrated her escape and is the father of her unborn child, flees from Cheka patrols.  Little by little, Mark Mills fills in the backstory.  We learn that Nash was working for the British Foreign Office until, after barely escaping from Petrograd during the Russian Revolution, he joined the SIS to better his chances of assisting the woman he loves.  His attempt to spirit Irina out of the country goes disastrously wrong; Nash has been betrayed and is lucky to make a second escape from Russia.

After that tense beginning, the story flashes forward to 1935.  It again begins in mid-stride, introducing new characters in a new setting (Toulon, France) as if they were already familiar to the reader.  The focus nonetheless remains on Nash, who is haunted by his failure to rescue Irina.  Despite his retirement from a life of danger, Nash becomes the target of an assassination attempt.  Even worse, he suspects he has been betrayed by one of his friends.  At that point the novel blends suspense and mystery as Nash tries to figure out who wants him dead and why.  The threat forces Nash to look back upon his life, giving the reader an abbreviated view of the events that shaped him, including some ugly childhood memories.

The characters in House of the Hunted are all erudite, well-educated and often artistic.  They make impossibly witty dinner conversation while consuming bottle after bottle of fine wine.  They are nonetheless a believable mix of Russians, Americans, Germans, French, and British, the sort of folk who might have summered (or lived) in a charming harbor town in the south of France between the two world wars.  Nash’s relationship with a goddaughter who is blossoming into adulthood adds an interesting dimension to Nash’s character as he tries to decide what to do about their changing relationship.

This isn’t a novel of jaw-dropping developments, and in that low-key sense House of the Hunted is more credible than many espionage thrillers.  Several small interpersonal dramas substitute for blockbuster international intrigue, although those dramas give birth to intrigues of their own.  There is nonetheless a significant surprise at the end, as well as a smaller one, neither of which I anticipated.  This is a novel without loose ends; all the storylines are carefully knotted together as the story reaches its climax.

Mills’ prose is as smooth as the cognac the characters love to drink.  He tells a smart, engaging tale.  While I felt emotionally detached from Nash and the other characters (maybe I’m just not a cognac kind of guy), I appreciated the skillful storytelling and enjoyed the unexpected plot developments.  The final chapter sets up the possibility of a sequel that I would love to read.  Nash is a worthy heir to James Bond, sophistication and grit without all the flash and gadgetry.

RECOMMENDED

Billion Dollar Brain by Len Deighton

First published in Great Britain in 1966

At some point in Billion Dollar Brain, the unnamed British spy from whose perspective the story is told says to an American named Midwinter: "You think the best way to contribute to a dangerous situation is to raise a private army out of your profits on cans of oil and beans, frozen orange juice and advertising, and to operate your own undeclared war against the Russians." That pretty well sums up the plot. Midwinter wants to recruit the unnamed British spy to his private army of agents; the Brit plays along to learn what Midwinter is planning. The premise is thin and not particularly credible, but it leads into a fun, well-written story that feels only slightly dated despite its 1966 vintage (other than giving the book its title, computers are fairly peripheral to the plot, fortunate given that they operate as little more than expensive answering machines).

In its depiction of paranoid overreaction to the perceived threat of Communism, Billion Dollar Brain reminds me of Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove. Kubrick's humor is over-the-top while Deighton's is of the understated British variety -- the film is played for laughs while Deighton's novel retains the elements of a thriller -- but both use satire to make the same fundamental point: "facts are no substitute for intelligence" and all the nefarious facts that could be mustered about Khrushchev's Russia would not have justified the decision to initiate a world-ending nuclear conflict.

Billion Dollar Brain is written with an understated nonchalance, low-key humor perhaps too frequently offsetting the tension of high-stakes espionage. Although it is one of Len Deighton's early novels, he wielded all the tricks in a seasoned writer's arsenal to direct a play in the reader's mind. Dialog often makes the reader picture scenes that are never directly described; non sequiturs force the reader to rethink characters and settings; offhand remarks help the reader imagine the details of a character's personality. The plot takes a couple of perfect twists before arriving at a satisfying conclusion.

Billion Dollar Brain doesn't have the same heft as Deighton's later novels but the story is fun, the characters are quirky, and the writing is so engaging that the novel is of enduring value.

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Once a Spy by Keith Thomson

Published by Doubleday on March 9, 2010

Charles Clark, a less than successful racetrack gambler, always thought his father, "Hum" Drummond, lived up to his nickname: a dull, plodding, colorless man. Now that Drummond is afflicted with Alzheimer's, however, someone seems intent on killing him. Charles doesn't understand why anyone would want his hapless, harmless father dead. Watching his father avoid assassination, Charles is amazed to discover that Drummond has hidden talents: he is adept at spotting surveillance teams, hotwiring cars, and disarming attackers. Soon Charles learns that Drummond's life as a washing machine salesman (and as a father) was simply a cover for his true vocation: Drummond is a spy. Unfortunately, unless he is having one of his rare lucid moments, Drummond doesn't remember being a spy and can't recall the identity of his employer. It falls to Charles to help his father stay alive long enough to uncover (or remember) the truth.

From this clever premise Keith Thomson weaves a surprisingly funny story. I took it in the spirit in which it is written, as a humorous look at clandestine service. Don't expect a serious spy novel; the reason that Drummond's life is in danger is just short of preposterous, as are many of the events that occur while the fast-moving plot unfolds. Still, this spoof of a spy novel isn't played entirely for laughs. Drummond is set up as an authentic operative, unlike Maxwell Smart or Austin Powers. The story delivers the sort of action that befits a thriller without ever taking itself too seriously.

Keith Thomson's clean prose style is well suited to the subject matter: it isn't flashy and it doesn't get in the way of the action. The story moves quickly to a satisfying conclusion. I wouldn't call Once a Spy memorable (either as a spy story or as comedy) but it's the sort of light, quick, enjoyable read that clears the mind between weightier books.

RECOMMENDED

Shadows of Berlin by Trevor Scott

Published by Dorchester on March 1, 2012

The cold war warms up in this reasonably entertaining spy novel.  Nick Logan is a retired CIA officer, now working as a private security consultant.  The story opens with Logan’s discharge from an Austrian hospital, having survived an assassination attempt that killed his girlfriend.  Logan soon learns that an unknown source has issued a contract on his life.  Meanwhile, five bodies, all shot through the eye, have been pulled out of the Spree River, leaving Gustav Vogler, Berlin’s chief homicide inspector, to wonder why apparently unrelated victims were targeted by a professional killer -- and leaving the reader to wonder about the connection between those killings and the attempts to murder Logan.

Apart from the dead girlfriend, three women figure into the plot.  Alexandra Schulz is a German intelligence officer to whom Logan has always felt an attraction.  Tatyana Petrova, an Army General and highly placed officer in Russia’s SVR, has a professional interest in Logan and in the growing body count in Berlin.  Logan’s ex-wife, Tina Carducci, still with the CIA, jets off to Austria to watch Logan’s back -- if she can find him.  Fortunately for her, tracking Logan isn’t difficult, given his propensity to become involved in gunfights as he makes his way across Europe. 

Trevor Scott’s writing is sometimes formulaic; his style is lackluster.  He tends to overuse certain phrases.  The novel’s several sex scenes, in particular, seem like Xerox copies of each other.  The women seem to have been cloned from a single source; there’s little to differentiate one from another.  Scott’s attempts to inject humor are mostly unsuccessful. 

On the other hand, the novel moves at the quick pace a reader expects from a thriller.  Intermittent action sequences add excitement to the story.  Although I wasn’t motivated to keep reading by stirring prose or unconventional characters, I nonetheless kept reading.  I attribute that to Scott’s ability to craft a tight plot that kept me guessing without becoming unduly convoluted.  There is, in fact, a nifty twist that brings the novel’s leading characters together for roughly the same purpose toward the novel’s end, igniting a perfect storm of intrigue.  Scott’s deft plotting largely overcomes his pedestrian writing style, making Shadows of Berlin a worthy addition to the second-tier shelf of espionage novels.

RECOMMENDED

The Unknown Soldier by Gerald Seymour

First published in Great Britain in 2004; published by Overlook Trade Paperback on March 28, 2006

Gerald Seymour is one of my favorite writers of espionage fiction. Toiling in the shadow of John Le Carré, Seymour's work is largely overlooked by the American audience. Seymour doesn't have quite the stylistic grace of Le Carré, but he is -- at his best -- nearly Le Carré's equal as a storyteller. While The Unknown Soldier isn't Seymour's best work (Home Run remains my favorite), the novel features some of Seymour's most intriguing characters.

Seymour structures the plot as a series of interlocking storylines, each following a set of characters that, for most of the novel, lack any connection to the others. The key character, known both as Caleb and Abu Khaleb, has managed to talk his way out of Guantanamo by adopting the identity of an innocent cab driver. For reasons that don't become apparent until the final chapters, Caleb is making his way across the Earth's largest sand desert, the Empty Quarter in the Arabian Peninsula. Sparsely populated by camels and itinerant Bedouin tribesmen, the Empty Quarter serves as a hiding place for Caleb's al Qaeda masters. A good part of the novel describes the arduous journey Caleb makes across the forbidding terrain and the conflicts that arise between the untrusting terrorists who accompany him.

Other characters include Beth Jenkins, a lonely geologist working at the Shaybah oil extraction plant; Samuel "Bart" Bartholomew, a disgraced physician who works in Riyadh, where his income depends upon the information about his patients that he provides to British intelligence officer Eddie Wroughton; Juan Gonsalves, Wroughton's American counterpart; Jed Dietrich, a Guantanamo interrogator working for the DIA;, and Marty and Lizzy-Jo, the pilot and sensor operator of a Predator that prowls the windy skies above the Empty Quarter. Each character comes fully alive. Their individual stories are more interesting than the slowly unfolding explanation for Caleb's trek across the desert.

As is characteristic of Seymour's novels, The Unknown Soldier is solidly plotted. Dramatic tension builds as the characters, carrying out their own missions and agendas, end up working at cross-purposes. Thriller fans looking for fast action, gunplay, and heroes who save the world from evil fanatics might be bored by The Unknown Soldier, as well as Seymour's other novels. This is a novel of intrigue and intellect rather than daring exploits.

Readers who want a clear, unambiguous ending in which the good guys defeat the bad guys should probably never read a Seymour novel, particularly not this one. I didn't mind the unresolved nature of the story's conclusion but I don't think it had quite the punch that Seymour intended. Perhaps there have been so many novels about terrorism in recent years that I've become jaded, but the open-ended, supposedly ominous ending didn't resonate with me. For that reason, I thought The Unknown Soldier was worth reading for its characters, less so for its story.

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