All Honourable Men [Hardcover]

Gavin Lyall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1999

When a local bandit holds engineers of the Baghdad Railway to ransom, Britain is secretly delighted - the railway is a potential threat to her interests in the Persian Gulf. However, she sends Lady Keso to sweet talk the brigand out of his plan in an empty gesture of goodwill.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 298 pages
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton (June 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0340708549
• ISBN-13: 978-0340708545
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,176,624 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and well written period spy-thriller, November 1, 2002

By 

Iain S. Palin (Northern Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: All Honourable Men (Paperback)

Gavin Lyall is an excellent, if somewhat under-rated, writer of adventures and spy novels. His latest offerings are set in the years just before World War I and feature Britain's recently established Secret Service Bureau - a small, low-budget, and rather amateur outfit establishing its usefulness through the force of character of its head and the dedicated service of its few operatives.

Like others in the series "All Honourable Men" features as its protagonists the "odd couple" of agents: Ranklin, the very English army officer with his military career "on hold" through no fault of his own, and O'Gilroy, the streetwise Irish republican on the run from his former comrades. They each have their strengths and weaknesses - indeed Ranklin says that put together they make one (passable) agent. In this he sells them short. They are very human and engaging characters with their own reasons for the work they do, but they do it professionally and as a first-rate team.

In this book they find themselves pitched not just into danger but into high politics. The Germans are building railway through Turkey, which doesn't suit Britain's interests. When they run into a problem they need British help in resolving, Ranklin and O'Gilroy are part of the team sent ostensibly to sort things out. In fact they have secret instructions to make them worse, while not getting killed, or (worse) found out. But they aren't the only ones with an agenda of their own. To Germany, Britain and Turkey add America (or at least American big business with its own interests to safeguard) and France, and you have a veritable witches' brew bubbling away in one of the world's political hot spots. The two spies are in for an eventful time.

Lyall shows real skill in bringing people and situations to life. The detail is never oppressive but it transports you back to that vanished time. You get to know Ranklin, and O'Gilroy, and the others, and understand the world they live in and why they think and act the way they do. He also has his fair share of dry British wit and irony, and some fine turns of phrase that enhance your enjoyment while letting you learn more about Ranklin and O'Gilroy, and why they do what they do.

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid; 3.5 Stars, August 30, 2011

By 

R. Albin (Ann Arbor, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: All Honourable Men (Paperback)

Lyall is an under-rated thriller writer. His best books are probably the Harry Maxim series, some of which were made into BBC TV shows. This series, which focuses on the British Secret Service on the eve of WWI, is solid, above average entertainment. Lyall does well with good character development, solid plotting, and reasonable attention to historical detail. Hard to obtain in the US because these books were published in Britain, well worth a few dollars in a used bookstore.