Death Throes by Clive Egleton

First published in 1994

True to the form established in the first two Peter Ashton novels (Hostile Intent and A Killing in Moscow), Death Throes begins with a death. A Russian using the name Valentin has contacted SIS and asked to meet with Ashton in Bulgaria. Ashton goes to Sofia to meet Valentin's contact, only to find him dead in his apartment. Ashton is soon taken prisoner by the KGB and interrogated about Valentin. Escaping and returning to London, Ashton finds himself caught between Valentin, who wants to sell secrets in exchange for money, and some members of the SIS who want to use him as a pawn to uncover Valentin's identity. The plot takes Ashton to Estonia for another meeting with Valentin (but is it the same Valentin?) and to Berlin, where a related story unfolds concerning a former KGB hit man who assassinates a neo-Nazi leader.

Intricate plotting is Egleton's strength. The story in Death Throes sometimes seems a bit convoluted -- I often found myself reviewing earlier chapters to refresh my memory concerning the many characters who come and go as the plot develops -- but it all comes together by the novel's end. The downside to this novel is Egleton's writing style, which is sometimes less than graceful. In addition, Egleton has a tendency to bombard the reader with information that isn't particularly useful, like the price SIS paid for a safehouse before the market fell. And while I understand the need to provide background information from past novels so that this one can stand alone (which it does), Egleton sometimes overdoes it. Do we really need to learn (again) that Harriet (Ashton's love interest) obtained "a good upper second in Geography at Birmingham University" before taking the various positions that led to her current employment with SIS?

Perhaps as a result of the digressions about educational backgrounds and job histories and real estate markets, Death Throes does not move with the same pace as the earlier novels (despite a few well written action scenes), and it suffers from the same occasional clunky prose that troubled me in Hostile Intent. There is also less development of Ashton's character in Death Throes than there was in A Killing in Moscow, although more attention is paid to Harriet and to Ashton's relationship with her. All told, I liked Death Throes, but not as much as Hostile Intent and certainly not as much as A Killing in Moscow.

RECOMMENDED

Dead Spy Running by Jon Stock

Published by Thomas Dunne Books on October 26, 2010; first published in Great Britain in 2009

Dead Spy Running begins with Daniel Marchant running a marathon but the story (unlike the runner) takes off at a sprinter's speed. Suspended from MI6, Marchant has personal issues: he drinks too much and his deceased father, the former Chief of MI6, is suspected of having been a traitor. During the race, Marchant observes one of the runners wearing a belt that conceals explosives -- and the runner happens to be trailing near the American ambassador. Marchant's proximity to the suicide bomber is viewed as no coincidence by the suspicious minds at MI5. Soon the CIA fixates on the notion that Marchant is working for terrorists. Even Marchant's spy girlfriend seems uncertain about Marchant's loyalty. The novel follows Marchant as he battles to clear his father's name and his own.

Much of Dead Spy Running has been done before, often by better writers: the son who wonders whether his father was a traitor, by Len Deighton; the spy with a drinking problem by Graham Greene; the mole in MI6 by John Le Carre and many others. Toward the end, however, the plot takes a twist I haven't seen before, saving the novel from being a rehash of tired stories. Dead Spy Running also has an interesting political component that's not exactly new but well done, as MI6 finds itself at odds with MI5 and the CIA.

The plot is the novel's strong point. The characters are nothing special. The CIA spooks seem a bit over-the-top in their thuggish ways, eagerly carrying out extraordinary renditions so they can conduct interrogations via waterboard. (Of course, there's a reason America's clandestine community is seen that way, but still ....) Stock's writing style is fine but far from stirring. He does have the ability to describe locations (Poland and India) with the kind of detail that adds authenticity to the novel. The pace is perfect for a spy thriller: a fast start, easing a bit as the plot sets up, then full throttle to an action-filled end. Stock doesn't resort to having Marchant perform superhuman feats to save the world, but there's plenty here for action fans.

The ending stretches the limits of credibility but I was willing to accept it because ... well, it was satisfying. I liked this novel and I would recommend it to fans of espionage fiction as a worthwhile blend of intelligent plotting and fast action.

RECOMMENDED

The Tears of Autumn by Charles McCarry

First published in 1975

To pursue his theory concerning the assassination of JFK, Paul Christopher resigns from the spy agency that employs him and with the tacit approval of his boss begins an investigation that takes him to Italy, France, and Vietnam, among other places. What he learns may seem a little far-fetched, but McCarry writes convincingly, and his story is a refreshing respite from the more conventional fictionalized views of the Kennedy assassination.

McCarry provides wonderful descriptions of the places to which Christopher travels; the reader can feel danger in the atmosphere as Christopher walks into a Vietnamese alley. McCarry deftly mixes politics with a stirring tale of investigatory intrigue to create a well-paced spy thriller that actually thrills.

I liked McCarry's first novel, The Miernik Dossier, slightly better, but this one is nearly as good.

RECOMMENDED

Home Run by Gerald Seymour

Published by The Harvill Press on May 30, 1989; published in the US in 1991 under the title The Running Target

Writers of espionage novels are inevitably compared to John Le Carré, particularly if the writer is British. Gerald Seymour's writing style isn't as polished, and the characters in Home Run lack the multi-layered depth of Le Carré's best characters, but the plot and pace of Home Run are worthy of the master.

Home Run begins with the 1982 execution of a teenage girl in Iran. The rest of the novel takes place several years later. Point of view shifts frequently as two storylines unfold. One concerns a drug investigation that follows the death of a 19 year old heroin addict who overdosed. Her father, an important public official, pressures the police to make the heroin importer's arrest their top priority. The cops diligently pursue the task, grumbling all the way. The other story focuses on Matthew ("Mattie") Furniss, Head of the Iran desk at the SIS, who is being pressured by the new Director General to increase the quality of intelligence coming out of Iran. Fortunately, Furniss has cultivated a new Iranian spy, a family friend who happens to be the brother of the girl who was executed.

Home Run gets off to a conventional start, particularly with the drug investigation, where Seymour employs off-the-shelf drug cops who give the usual tiresome speeches about the evils of illicit substances. The main cop character is filled with anger and moral outrage -- traits that turn out to be necessary to the plot -- but he has the standard fictional cop's "driven by duty" personality. Seymour provided him with the familiar neglected wife who is no longer tolerant of his "job first" priorities and is making her displeasure known.

Mattie Furniss is a stronger and more interesting character; thankfully his story is at the heart of the novel. At the Director General's insistence, Furniss travels to Turkey to give a pep talk to his agents. Things do not go well for him. Back at home, bureaucrats and politicians are busily abusing their power or wielding it unwisely. There's a fascinating turf war between the self-righteous drug agents, who view the "faceless wonders" of the SIS as impeding their all-important drug investigation, and the smug SIS officers who view the drug agents as "glorified traffic wardens."

Both storylines are filled with action and tension. The pace picks up considerably by the novel's midpoint, moving with furious speed as the characters encounter realistic threats in dangerous places. Torture scenes are vivid without going too far.

Seymour uses too many comma splices, leading to awkward sentences, but that's a minor gripe. For the most part, the writing is adequate to its purpose, even if the prose doesn't soar. Stylistic lapses quickly become secondary to storylines that captivate the reader's attention.

I would enthusiastically recommend Home Run to most fans of espionage fiction, but it isn't for everyone. If you like novels in which the good guys are pure and the bad guys personify evil, this is not the book for you. There are plenty of evil bad guys, but the three main characters -- Furniss, his Iranian spy, and the drug cop -- each make questionable moral decisions. Seymour's construction of the characters and plot makes it easy to understand why they act as they do. Seymour doesn't judge them; the reader is left to decide whether each character's actions were right or wrong under the circumstances. The answers aren't necessarily clear -- I liked that, but some readers won't appreciate the moral ambiguity. As the novel's end approached, I was drawn into each character's world, fascinated by the choices they made, understanding and sympathizing with them even when I disagreed with their decisions. For all these reasons, I regard Home Run as one of the most entertaining and thought-provoking spy novels I've encountered.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

A Killing in Moscow by Clive Egleton

First published in 1994

Clive Egleton's second Peter Ashton novel is better than his first (Hostile Intent). Ashton is given a stronger personality (the polite British version of abrasive) and he begins to have a life outside the office. The plot is a bit less far-fetched and a bit more interesting than the story in Hostile Intent in that A Killing in Moscow explores the relationship between the KGB and organized crime in post-Soviet Russia, arguing (through Ashton) that it doesn't matter whether the people on the other side are motivated by politics or greed if their actions jeopardize national security.

The novel begins with the execution of British businessman Colin Joyner and the prostitute he was entertaining in his Moscow hotel room. Peter Ashton, not quite trusted or simply disliked by those in power at SIS as a result of his actions in Hostile Intent, has been assigned to run Security and Technical Services where his access to top secret information is limited. Ashton, in Moscow to conduct a security audit, is sent by the British Embassy to assist the local police in the investigation of Joyner's death. This straight-forward task becomes more complicated when Ashton learns that a Russian woman employed as an Embassy secretary has been spying on the British Embassy official who monitors commercial transactions, and has been passing information to the prostitute who was found dead in Joyner's room. The novel follows Ashton as he puzzles out the relationship between the spy and Joyner. As in Hostile Intent, Ashton makes it his responsibility to keep the spy alive, creating the opportunity for some fast moving action scenes.

The pace in A Killing in Moscow is intense and Egleton's prose is more fluid than it was in Hostile Intent. The combination of intellectual intrigue and well written action scenes makes this a fun reading experience, and the ending is just wild.

RECOMMENDED