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This was a book I picked up with enthusiasm, having read the
blurb. "Espionage for the new millennium" was the quote from
the Sunday Times, and other indicators showed that Orion is hoping for
great things.
So what’s it about? In essence, it’s a rerun of 9/11, but
with a subtly different target. It begins with the arrival at Heathrow
of Norquist, the US President’s security advisor, who’s on
his way to have a meeting with the Prime Minister, but as soon as he
arrives it’s clear that he is expected. The British security
services are there to meet him, and whisk him off to protect him. In a
brilliant piece of writing, two men manage to get through the police
vehicles and Norquist dies from a bullet wound – ironically,
probably a British Police shot that went astray.
But at the airport is Isis Herrick, who thinks that she saw
something odd happen there at Heathrow when Norquist landed.
Herrick is a good invention: daughter of a long-standing SIS staffer,
she was raised in the profession of spying. She knows the Service, and
she is much in demand, being a fluent Arabic speaker. The plot zips
along with a pleasing speed, taking the readers from a miserable group
of ex-mujahadeen trying to cross into Albania, to Egypt, to Britain
and the US Israel . . . clearly foreign travel is a standard perk of
the modern day spy.
The book is well-written, but for me it lacked something. There was
plenty of excitement and a well-thought out plot, but it didn’t
feel quite as believable as, say, Frederick Forsyth in his heyday.
Somehow there was a sense of emptiness in the middle. Perhaps it was
the lead character, Isis Herrick. I fear I have an instinctive
distrust of beautiful heroines who can escape, Dick Barton-like, from
the most appalling situations.
Still, that’s being very picky, and I don’t think that my
own reservations would affect other readers. No, this is a good,
competent story written by a man who would certainly seem to have a
great deal of inside knowledge of the spying game.
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