|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
Toby Quayle works for the Firm, aka., the British Secret Intelligence Service. The job proves deadly when Quayle meets with Anwar Farid and Farid's 'girlfriend', Danielle, in a London restaurant. Farid is selling information concerning Talal Asir, an Arab suspected of financing terrorism, but Quayle balks at the price demanded by the informant. Before they can settle the deal, two gunmen invade the restaurant. Quayle, Farid, and Danielle die in a hail of gunfire. Quayle's boss is the first to hear of Toby's death. Ralph Meacher informs Sir Victor Hazlewood, the General Director of the SIS, who promptly asks for advice from Peter Ashton, head of the East European and Balkan Department. Although Meacher believes Quayle was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, a victim of a robbery gone bad, Ashton believes otherwise. He contacts Richard Neagle, head of MI5's Anti-Terrorist Branch. Ashton then assigns Will Landon to investigate Quayle's death for the SIS. Will Landon is the Firm's representative to CATO, the Combined Anti-Terrorist Organization. He's also a man who's fallen badly for Ensley Holsinger, an American woman with dubious work ethics. Unbeknown to Landon, Ensley has been recruited by an American Embassy employee to spy on Will and report any progress he makes in his investigation. Told it's her patriotic duty, Ensley goes along with the request. Landon works uncover on the case while also assisting the London police in their investigation. He learns little about Danielle, but he discovers that Farid was involved with drug smuggling. Could the murders be related to Farid's drug operation, or were the three people massacred by terrorists bent on keeping Farid quiet? Meanwhile, British embassies are being bombed in Pakistan and Russia. Ashton and Sir Victor are convinced that Tala Asir is behind the bombings. They plan a joint operation with the Israeli Mossad to wipe out their common enemy, but are careful to keep it a secret from MI5 and Parliament. Their plan is jeopardized, though, when Landon is arrested by London police while providing security for Mossad's top man in England. Peter Ashton and his cohorts walk a fine line in this well-written spy novel by Clive Egleton. The author details the intricacies of the British security branches where the left hand often doesn't know what the right hand is doing. Despite the role of CATO as a resource-sharing overseer for government security, men like Sir Victor of the SIS and Richard Neagle of MI5 keep secrets from each other, make decisions favoring their own branches, and often tread dangerously close to illegality in their actions. They are also not above personal pettiness or twisting the truth when they are under public scrutiny. Even blackmail can be done in the name of national security. To be fair, Egleton shows the disadvantages of publicizing the work of the SIS and MI5 in a subplot involving one of the main characters. Still, Americans familiar with the lapse in communication between the CIA and the FBI prior to 9/11 will shake their heads after reading this book. It's a wonder that democratic governments survive when security agencies seem more bent on protecting their secrets from each other than sharing their knowledge for the good of all. This is a thinking man's spy novel that leaves as many questions unanswered as answered.
Reviewed by Mary V. Welk, May 2006
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
