Hammer to Fall by John Lawton

Published by Atlantic Monthly Press on March 10, 2020

Hammer to Fall is the third Joe Wilderness novel, but I have not been so fortunate as to read the first two. John Lawton has an unusual take on the spy novel genre. Wilderness (whose birth name is Holderness) is a bit of a rogue, a patriot when necessary and a hustler when opportunity presents itself. Spying suits his personality because he’s a born deceiver, but so does filling his safe with ill-gotten currency. The story is amusing for that reason, but it is far from a comedy. Hammer to Fall creates suspense in the best tradition of spy novels, including a couple of classic prisoner exchanges on bridges.

The novel has many moving parts and covers a significant span of time. Central characters weave in and out of each other’s lives as the story unfolds.

Joe begins the novel as a Schieber (black marketeer). In 1948, Joe is a Russian-speaking British corporal who does business with Eddie Clark and an American named Frank Spoleto, selling stolen coffee to a Russian named Kostya Zolotukhin. Kostya’s mother is a general in the NKVD known as the Red Widow. She rips off Joe and the Schiebers in a deal for peanut butter, leaving Kostya to face their wrath.

Spoleto goes on to be a CIA agent. Joe’s lover at the time is woman named Nell Burkhardt who was “raised by thieves and whores back in London’s East End” yet has a moral compass that Joe lacks.

Fast forward to 1966 and Joe is a field agent for MI6 who has seemingly misplaced a Soviet agent named Bernard Alleyn during a prisoner exchange. What actually happened to Alleyn plays a key role in the novel’s resolution. As punishment for apparently bungling his mission, Joe is sent to Finland, where nothing is happening. Joe passes the time by reengaging with Kostya in a black-market vodka operation until he stumbles upon information that might suggest an actual Soviet plot against the West. Along the way Joe gives a career assist to a bright woman named Janis Bell.

Joe next travels to Prague after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, posing as a tractor salesman. The Prague station chief, whose wife slugged a Russian spy, is spirited away and replaced by an old friend of Joe. Another old friend, Freddie Troy, who also has a feisty wife, goes to Prague as the UK ambassador. All of this leads to the story’s culmination, which circles to the beginning and brings back characters from Joe’s past in another tense scene on a bridge between East and West.

Lawton’s characters have a realistic (not to say cynical) view of the world that they sometimes express with a bit of snark. For example, when Troy is told that his mission in Prague is to show support for democratic rebels while quietly turning most of them over to the Russians because “we can’t put up tents on the embassy lawn” to house them all, Troy asks why it is important to demonstrate support publicly if “in private you’re getting ready to dump them.” Of course, Troy’s wife promptly puts up tents in the embassy lawn.

The plot is also realistic in that it doesn’t involve a series of chase scenes and shootouts. Joe is bored much of the time because spying involves a good bit of waiting and watching. There’s little chance for the reader to be bored, however, because Joe fills his time in interesting ways. And moments of fast action arise with sufficient frequency to give the book a good pace.

Complex characters, a fascinating and wide-ranging plot, and a terrific sense of atmosphere make Hammer to Fall a pleasure to read. The book is self-contained, but the ending sets up the next installment with a mini-cliffhanger.

RECOMMENDED

A Shadow Intelligence by Oliver Harris

First published in Great Britain in 2019; published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on April 14, 2020

Not many novels are set in Kazakhstan. A Shadow Intelligence earned my interest just by sending characters to a country that is difficult to spell. Add a campaign to spread disinformation on social media, private militaries controlled by oil companies, and Afghan smugglers to a mix that includes British and Russian spies and you’ve got an unusually intriguing story.

A Shadow Intelligence doesn’t feature a superhero who fights and shoots his way out of every problem. Nor does he wear an exploding watch. Elliot Kane employs tradecraft, but he basically blunders into situations and hopes for the best. Elliot’s fallibility is another aspect of the novel that appealed to me.

Elliot begins the novel in a funk, having been recalled to London from an undercover assignment in Saudi Arabia that ended with the arrest of his agent. When he checks his email, he finds a coded message telling him that either he or the sender is in danger. Hidden in the message is a digital picture. He’s in the picture, talking to a person he doesn’t know in a room he’s never seen.

The message is from Joanna Lake, an MI6 field officer for whom Elliot has feelings. He asks colleagues about her status, only to learn that she’s no longer employed. She was last working with the Psychological Operations Group, a combined effort of MI6, the British military, and GCHQ, the British version of the NSA. Elliot doesn’t know what project occupied her time, but he learns that her unit was shut down, that she was escorted from the premises, and that security officials have been asking questions about both Lake and Elliot.

Elliot’s effort to find Joanna leads him to a dead body, an oil company called Saracen that is buying land in Kazakhstan, and a firm of private intelligence analysts (including many who recently jumped ship from MI6) called Vectis. Elliot travels to Kazakhstan, where his presence is noted by Sergei Cherenkov, who tries to recruit Elliot to spy for the Russians. Eliot begins to wonder whether the same pitch was made to Joanna and whether she accepted.

The web of intrigue convinces Elliot that previously unknown oil fields in Kazakhstan may lead to a Russian invasion and a war in which China will intervene. The international stakes are high, but from a personal standpoint, Eliot wants to know whether Lake is still secretly working for MI6, whether she was hired by Vectis to do sketchy work, or whether she is working for the Russians. A social media influencer in Kazakhstan named Aliya, the pro-western daughter of Kazakhstan’s president, and an Afghan smuggler who has a history with Elliot also feature in the mix.

The novel is an effective blend of mystery, suspense, and action. As an international conflict looms, the plot encourages the reader to join Elliot in speculating about Joanna’s role and why she messaged Elliot. Events have been shaped in a way that mislead Elliot (and thus the reader) before the dots connect in a way that makes sense. The story’s focus on the recruitment and deception of social media influencers to drive public opinion in directions dictated by governments or private businesses gives the story some currency.

Near the end of the novel, when Elliot has been identified as someone who should either be arrested or shot on sight, it seems unlikely that he can make it to the end of the book without being tracked and apprehended. That he does so is a mild stretch. Elliot’s fairly standard spy persona would have benefitted from a bit more character development. Those are relatively minor complaints in a plot-focused novel that delivers the kind of byzantine international jousting that makes spy novels so entertaining.

RECOMMENDED

An American Spy by Olen Steinhauer

First published by Minotaur Books on March 13, 2012; reissued by Minotaur on March 3, 2020

An American Spy is the last novel in the Tourist trilogy, following The Tourist and The Nearest Exit. It could be read as a standalone, but doing so would deprive the reader of important context. This review includes spoilers concerning the second novel.

The trilogy follows Milo Weaver, who works as a Tourist for a small and very secret unit of the CIA. Tourists run around the world executing American policy by executing people whose interests do not align with American interests as judged by the people in charge of the Tourists. While they make other kinds of mischief, assassination is the key to their game.

Milo’s background — his Russian father is now running a spy agency for the United Nations, an agency so secretive that the United Nations doesn’t even know about it — is developed in The Tourist. In The Nearest Exit, Milo gets a new boss, Alan Drummond, and takes on Chinese spymaster Xin Zhu. Near the novel’s end, Zhu arranges for most of the Tourists to be murdered and for Milo to be shot.

An American Spy begins with Drummond losing his job. Drummond wants revenge against Zhu and would like Milo to join his team. When Milo says no, Drummond goes to London and then disappears. Not long after that, his wife disappears. And not long after that, Milo’s wife and daughter are gone. Milo assumes that they have all been taken by Zhu as a consequence of Drummond’s failed scheme.

Plot twists make An American Spy an engaging read, but the novel’s structure accounts for its success. While always told in the third person, the novel frequently shifts its focus, often backtracking to show events that were first perceived by one character from the perspective of a different character. In that way, the pieces of the jigsaw slowly rearrange to display a new picture, one that evolves as details are added until it becomes something quite different than it first seemed. Judging by Amazon and Goodreads reviews, a number of readers thought the changing perspectives were confusing. I thought they were the novel’s strength.

A German intelligence officer named Erica Schwartz, who plays a central role in The Nearest Exit, furnishes an early perspective in An American Spy. Milo’s sister and three surviving Tourists play important roles in the story (Letitia Jones, who exudes both sexuality and danger, also adds a bit of humor), but the perspective of Xin Zhu is the most interesting. Zhu is playing not only against Drummond and Milo, but against the Chinese government, which may have been infiltrated by an American spy. Zhu’s machinations make him seem invincible, capable of outwitting anyone. With Drummond and Milo apparently at each other’s throats, it seems that Zhu will attain supremacy in the international espionage game. Of course, the reader knows that a final plot twist will come along. The surprising resolution is a delight.

Olen Steinhauer is among the best of a very small number of American writers who consistently produce excellent espionage novels. While An American Spy wraps up the trilogy, it leaves room for the story to continue. Minotaur has reissued the trilogy, staggering the rerelease of each volume, leading up to the publication of a new installment later in March. Fans of spy fiction will welcome the return of Milo Weaver.

RECOMMENDED

The Silent War by Andreas Norman

First published in Sweden in 2017; published in translation by Quercus on September 3, 2019

The Silent War differs from most espionage thrillers, in that it pits two allies against each other. Whether spy agencies should treat any nation as an ally, as opposed to a competitor to spy upon, is one of the book’s salient questions.

Betrayal is the constant theme of spy novels. Betrayal in the form of infidelity is central to The Silent War. Jonathan Green works for MI6 and is having an affair with Frances because their sex is so much better than he has with his wife Kate. Kate suspects Jonathan is seeing someone but she isn’t sure. As the station chief in Brussels, Jonathan has plenty of reasons to be secretive. One of his secrets involves Hercules, an operation proposed by Robert Davenport, head of the MI6 Middle East Department and Frances’ husband. There are leaks galore in the Brussels station, so Hercules will not be a secret for long.

The House in Turkey, near the Syrian border, is a part of Operation Hercules that even the Ministry of Defense doesn’t want to know about. Based on stolen documents, a Swedish intelligence operative named Bente Jensen learns that the Brits are using the House to interrogate prisoners in unlawful ways. That this comes as a shock to anyone in an intelligence service is hard to swallow, but MI6 is willing to go to any length to keep the House a secret, particularly from British politicians who might find it embarrassing.

Robert has a Clash of Civilizations mindset. Jonathan is more reasonable and therefore has reservations about the House, but he must retrieve the documents if he is to keep his job. Jonathan is also tasked with contacting an asset in Syria, a dangerous mission that would not have been assigned if Jonathan had kept it in his pants.

Meanwhile, Bente’s husband Fredrik, like Kate’s, is sleeping with another woman. It is no coincidence that the woman has turned her amorous attention to Bente’s husband, nor is it a coincidence that Bente’s mobile phone has been attacked by a virus. That attack adds to the institutional distrust of Bente, who (in the opinion of her superiors) exercised questionable judgment by accepting documents purloined from the British, potentially creating a diplomatic crisis. Bente is keeping the leaked documents in a safe in her home, which seems like an unprofessional place to stash top secret goodies.

British spies are part of the rich literary tradition of espionage novels. Swedes, not so much. The change of pace, coupled with the diplomatic difficulties of one European nation spying on another, is the most interesting aspect of The Silent War. The focus on cheating husbands and clandestine houses reserved for torture is more typical fare. The Silent War holds few surprises as it addresses those themes.

Characterization is not neglected, although the hand-wringing spouses of both genders who fret about their marriages again offer few surprises. The novel does have some stimulating action scenes near the end. Since they involve agents of friendly powers shooting at each other, they stretch the limits of plausibility. While The Silent War isn’t top shelf spy fiction, it does just enough to warrant its placement on a lower middle shelf, worthy of being consumed after better spy novels have been devoured.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Agent Running in the Field by John Le Carré

Published by Viking on October 22, 2019

No writer gives espionage a more human face than John Le Carré. His protagonists have regrets, but they make up for their mistakes with competence and an unfailing sense that doing the right thing is more important than doing what their bosses expect.

Nat is married to Prue. In their prime, they were both stationed in Russia, where they spied for the Secret Intelligence Service. Now Nat has an SIS desk job and Prue is a human rights lawyer. They live quietly in Battersea, have a daughter, and are generally happy. Events in this tight novel will test their contentment.

Nat is a badminton champ at Battersea’s Athleticus club. A young man named Ed Shannon has recently joined the club. He challenges Nat to a match because Nat is the best. They begin a sort of friendship, although Nat and Ed are both vague about their employment. Nat even brings a co-worker named Florence to a mixed doubles match, pretending that he doesn’t really know her. When Florence abruptly quits her job, the reader will suspect that the relationship between Nat and Ed and Florence will turn out to be bad for Nat’s career. That suspicion will be warranted, but the plot follows a surprising path.

Bryn Jordan, Nat’s former station chief in Moscow and currently “ruler-for-life of Russia department,” decides it is time to put Nat out to pasture. Nat doesn’t fit the new image of SIS, meaning he isn’t a young man with advanced computer skills. Rather than kicking Nat to the curb, Jordan sends him to London General. Its current head is Dominic Trench, who was station chief in Budapest when Nat was posted there. Dom is the kind of man “who takes you aside, anoints you his only friend in the world, regales you with the details of his private life you’d rather not hear, begs your advice, you give him none, he swears to follow it and next morning cuts you dead.”

Dom puts Nat in charge of the Haven, an all-but-defunct substation of London General, “a dumping ground for resettled defectors of nil value and fifth-rate informants on the skids.” Although it is a dead-end job, Nat endeavors to undermine Dom and Bryn by actually accomplishing something. He begins with a sleeper agent, a defector who is suddenly called to service by his Russian masters.

That story unfolds in the entertaining style a reader would expect of Le Carré, but it takes off when it circles back to Nat’s relationship with Ed. Naturally, Ed falls under suspicion and naturally, given the suspicious minds at work in SIS, Nat is regarded as a potentially culpable partner in crime. And naturally, everyone at SIS has it wrong, but it will take some quick thinking and astute tradecraft for Nat resolve the problem as best he can.

Nat, Prue, Ed, and Florence are in the vein of Le Carré’s most likeable characters. The “enemy” is kept backstage — for a time, it isn’t even clear which country is using its intelligence efforts against Britain — but Nat’s real enemies, as is often the case in a Le Carré novel, are the bureaucrats and politicians who have risen to the level of their incompetence. Brexit lurks in the background, as does Donald Trump, both mucking up the ability of Britain and America to work together to achieve common goals.

Even if his best work is behind him — and his best is the best — Le Carré remains the reigning champion of the espionage novel. He is still an astute observer of the human capacity for deception as well as the human fallibility that allows deceivers to triumph. He wrote this novel at the age of 88, but he has not forgotten, and refuses to condemn, the virtues of youthful idealism. Agent Running in the Field suggests that aging people can use their own brand of idealism to thwart, in some small way, a system that rewards duplicity and that confuses patriotism with blind obedience to rules that serve leaders, not the country.

RECOMMENDED

[Note: If you believe the reviewers (and I use the term loosely) who gave this novel one star on Amazon because it does not glorify Trump, you might conclude that the book is an anti-Trump diatribe. In fact, Trump barely rates a mention, although CIA machinations do play a role in concert with Brexit. The book is a best seller because it deserves to be, regardless of the mindless attacks launched by the right wing extremists who feel duty bound to attack anything they perceive as being even vaguely liberal.]