No matter how long is my TBR - and it´s always getting longer by the day - I have a weakness for Cold War spy novels. A terrible weakness to be honest. The confrontation between two worlds, none of them completely black or completely white, the tension of a potential atomic war and the race against time for acquiring better information are always a strong inspiration for powerful plots.
Journalists are great writers of spy novels. Especially those with experience in the world politics and international affairs. Because they got to know your friendly spy around the corner, they can relate to their own experiences, although in a fictional way. They, the spies, may know exactly which one of them was the inspiration for the novel.
James Naughtie, the autor of my latest spy novel read set in the Cold War, The Spy Across the Water is a popular BBC News journalist and presenter of Today on BBC Radio for 21 years. The book is the third installment in the series featuring former spy Willy Flemyng but it can be easily read as a stand alone book.
Currently the British ambassador to the UK, Willy Flyming is facing unexpectedly ghosts from his past. He needs to help a former Cold War ´friend´ in lethal danger, but is there something like friendship of spies? From Washington DC to the bloodied streets of Northern Ireland, the book leads the reader through the maze of a world full of secrets, untold betrayals and loneliness. From the point of view of the global design, a human life is nothing but a tool to reach and aim. Wars and espionage may ignore completely the value of life as every single one can be replaced in the larger economy of things.
I enjoyed the spy adventures and at least getting to know some of the characters. The book is well paced, alert while still allowing thoughts about current political and diplomatic events. Well informed and well written, a very entincing combo for any spy novels reader.
Rating: 4 stars
Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own
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