Amazon.com Review
John Gardner shares a few interests and abilities with William F. Buckley. Like the erudite American writer, whose Blackie Oakes thrillers are a mainstay of spy fiction, Gardner is smart, well-educated, and a pleasure to read, even without a dictionary close at hand. Like Buckley, Gardner knows the ins and outs of the intelligence trade (he took over the James Bond franchise from the late Ian Fleming, and has penned 16 007 novels since Fleming's death). And like Buckley, whose
Spytime focuses on the Kim Philby spy scandal that rocked Britain a generation ago, Gardner also goes back to the history books to take another look at the circle of young Cantabrigians who became spies for the Soviet Union. His Philby-like character is one Kit Palfrey, an infamous traitor who turns up one night while former intelligence operative Charlie Gauntlet is celebrating his wedding to Bex Olesker, a member of the London police antiterrorist branch. Charlie's out of the trade, but his instincts are still sharp, and when Palfrey convinces him that the five ancient scrolls he spirited out of Moscow's Lubianka prison and stored in a monastery in Scotland have vast implications for Christianity and perhaps for the future of the western world, he dusts off his old cloak and dagger and heads north.
The monks who are guarding the scrolls don't seem like the religious type to Charlie; they carry side arms, and he's seen them before in decidedly unholy circumstances. Meanwhile, his young bride is tracking the deadliest terrorist of them all: the Alchemist, a Carlos-the-Jackal type whose plot to kill the Russian president and his wife during an upcoming state visit to London has Bex and her colleagues racing against the clock to catch him. Gardner manages to tie the two main plots together in a smashing finale, but not before sprinkling his fast-moving thriller with erudition, quotations, and literary allusions so beloved by Buckley's fans. This clever novel will appeal to fans of John le Carré, Buckley, and Fleming. If it's your first Gardner, you'll be eager to search his large backlist for more of the same. --Jane Adams
From Publishers Weekly
The venerable author of more than 40 novels (including 14 in the James Bond series) is back in full force after a hiatus. His new spy thriller imagines a delightfully erotic and complex web involving biblical scholarship and international political intrigue. Unlikely May-December newlywedsABrits Bex Olesker, a sensual young antiterrorist cop, and her hubby, Charlie Gauntlet, a retired but ever-adventurous secret agentAare rudely robbed of honeymoon bliss when duty calls Bex from their bed. Sent to catch a world-class assassin called Alchemist before he can carry out a contract on the president of the Federation of Russian Republics, Bex shadows the hitman's girl Friday from Dublin to a hideaway on the Swiss shore of Lake Maggiore. Meanwhile, Charles is recruited to fly to a remote monastery off the shores of Scotland to validate the authenticity of a set of ancient scrolls purported to have been written days before Christ's crucifixion by a prostitute whom Jesus knew. Charlie is dubious when he recognizes the father superior from one of his first military assignments in a post-WWII displaced persons camp. Charlie's instinct is proven right when he discovers that the monastery is being used to launder large sums of dirty money linked to Chermyet, the Russian mafia chief who has hired the hit on the president. The ensuing action reunites the honeymooners in London as Alchemist moves to kill the visiting Russian. Richly textured, wonderfully atmospheric and ironical, the novel shows Gardner as a smooth, polished master of the form. Agent, Lisa Moylett. (Sept.)
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