Customer Reviews

Once A Spy: A Novel

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Keith Thomson's debut novel is a rollercoaster of a spy thriller that zips along at a breakneck pace, careening along a sharp track full of twists and turns and peaks and valleys that leave the reader breathless with excitement. What great fun, from the first page to the last, especially for those who are willing to hold on tight and just enjoy the ride!

Charlie Clark is an inveterate gambler on a lifetime losing streak who is summoned to a senior citizen's center to arrange for his father's long-term care. It seems as though the elder Clark is suffering from the early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, and passes in and out of awareness. Father and son have never really been close - but they're about to appreciate each other on an entirely new level as it becomes increasingly evident that Dad had a secret career as a master spy, and has now been targeted for elimination due to his faltering memory!

Thomson has created two delightful eccentrics in Charlie and Drummond Clark, and the novel is a perfect balance of character development and plot. The action never flags until the final paragraph, and it's laced with plenty of witty dialogue and dry humor. Here's hoping that "Once a Spy" proves to be the first in a new series. Climb aboard, buckle yourself in, and get ready for a one of a kind adventure that you won't want to end!

"Once a Spy" is about a retired CIA black ops man, Drummond Clark, who suffers from Alzheimer's and thus is perceived by his ex-colleagues as a risk to leak their secret of "the device," which is vital to national security. So they conclude that it's for "the greater good" that Drummond have an accident. A fatal one, of course.

The only person Drummond can rely on for aid is his estranged son, Charlie, a career underachiever and professional horseplayer who only ever known his father as a dull appliance salesman. Charlie tries to institutionalize Drummond, but before they can get to the nursing home, bullets start flying, and things start blowing up, almost every page.

In vivid, lighting-paced chapters that read like scenes from the best action movies, Charlie must solve the mystery of why assassins are trying to kill him and the old washing machine salesman, then develop the spine to do something about it. Drummond, in periodic episodes of lucidity, remembers bit here and there that offer clues. Sometimes he aids in their defense too--he fights and shoots at a world class level. Other times, he imparts tradecraft, like hot-wiring cars and disguise techniques. The previously estranged father and son come together, poignantly, and making a smashing team. Literally smashing.

The thrilling story that results is not just an adrenaline-fueled rollercoaster ride, as many others have commented. It's a revelation in the thriller genre, as novelist Lincoln Child avows. LeCarré books are wonderfully crafted (Thomson is no slouch with the written word either) but slow-paced. Other luminaries in the genre, Flynn and Thor, don't have characters with the depth and dimension of Drummond or Charlie. Or the wit. Thomson, a national secuirty reporter, also manages to add a layer of verisimilitude and insight of some of the genre's headier members, Ignatius and McCarrie.

I've never read anything like "Once a Spy." Hopefully there will be a sequel. Five stars and highly recommended on top of that.

"Once a Spy" starts of at a run. Charlie Clark, 30-ish slacker in general and racetrack gambler, gets a call from a local senior center asking him to pick up his father, who was found wandering the streets of Brooklyn in his pajamas. Charlie is estranged from his father, Drummond Clark, who never paid much attention to him, preferring instead his job as an appliance salesman. When Charlie picks up his father, however, bullets begin to fly, and it soon becomes apparent that Drummond knows as much about espionnage as about appliances, if only his Alzheimers weren't destroying his memory.

The foregoing is not a spoiler, since as much can be learned from the book's dust jacket. I was fascinated by the premise, and carried away by the speed of the chase. The story rockets forward in the time-honored manner of Ludlum and his literary descendants, as Drummond and Charlie try to stay alive and find out why so many people are trying to kill Drummond, and now, Charlie as well. It's an enjoyable ride, even though, the survival of our heroes becomes ever more improbable.

My reservations are similar to those I have with this genre generally: after a while I get a little tired of the progression "information tidbit -- gunfight -- information tidbit -- gunfight" that forms the backbone of the structure. The way Drummond's Alzheimers makes him fade in and out of coherence is, perhaps, just a little too convenient. And finally, the story would be more fully alive if a few spots were less sketchy -- like, for example, why Charlie is so unmotivated and whether he has any kind of job.

Even so, I hope that our duo returns for another episode, or at least that Thomson keeps writing. I'll be happy to read the next volume.

It is easy to call a novel a "rollercoaster thrill ride," but that is absolutely the case for "Once a Spy." The action, quite literally, never lets up for the entire length of the novel, which is both exciting and exhausting. I honestly would have preferred slightly longer pauses between the action sequences, which could have explored the father-son relationship a little more. I suppose I will have to wait for the inevitable, and nicely set up, sequel to find out more about these interesting characters.

The premise of a former spy suffering from Alzheimer's and his deadbeat son on the run from deadly assassins is fantastic and thought-provoking. It is handled in a surprising and witty manner, and without giving away any of the many twists and turns, the reader is forever at a lost as to who can be trusted and where the truth really lies. Recommended, but brace yourself!

A really well written book that deals with what to do with what happens with a spy and all the details, information, records, he's gotten throughout the years he's stuffed up in his brain......when he gets a neurological illness? What happens if the person starts talking by accident? And who cam you trust? Now not only do you have an illness, but you also have a second problem on who you can trust to help you. The easiest thing is to have you eliminated. So then what do you do?

Here I'm not giving stuff away, but it's just a bit of this thriller of a book. The thrill ride does not stop. Very cool book, written by someone who knows what he's writing about!

If you like Spy stuff, James Bond, espionage, not knowing who you can truly trust, hidden agendas, etc. Or issues where things happen but you're not told the whole story or it gets put off as something else. Then this book is for you!

I love discovering new authors whose work is worth reading. Keith Thomson is such an author. His debut novel, Once a Spy, is a thrilling read. The premise is a fascinating one. What happens when a former intelligence officer suffers prematurely from Alzheimer's disease and still holds in his head secrets that have national security ramifications? The answer is that the agency he worked for is forced to find a way to "neutralize" him.

The adventures that this former spy and his ne'er-do-well horse player of a son share in trying the evade capture and neutralization are thrilling and well told. Thomson has a wonderful eye for gritty detail that adds a layer of believability to the story that is very engaging. He has thrown together some wonderful plot elements that include the Russian mob, the Manhattan project, CIA safe houses, inter-agency rivalries and double dealing. Thomson is writing about matters that he has researched very carefully.

I am eagerly awaiting his next novel.

"The tree limbs and needles began to hiss. A helicopter rose over the hillcrest.

Mimicking Drummond, Charlie stopped and became a random mound of snow on the hillside. As the helicopter thundered overhead, the only movement on the hill was that of snowflakes stirred by the rotor blades.

The ship flew on to the ridge behind Charlie and Drummond.

The racket receded into the usual babble of wind and woods.

'Get up now, both of you, nice and slow,' came the voice of a man behind them. Charlie saw the shadow of a rifle barrel. 'Hands up high where I can see them.' "

- In which Charlie and his dad, Drummond, are once again caught between a rock and a hard place.

This is a rollicking good adventure with more fingernail breaking cliffs to hang from than even silent movie star Pearl White had in the 1914 serial "The Perils of Pauline." The short chapters move quickly, giving the reader a sense of breathlessness as the Clarks, Charlie and Drummond, dodge bullets, steal cars, hide from CIA killers and Russian mobsters, and more...much more. I don't want to give away anything to spoil the fun of reading this humorous and very entertaining debut novel by Keith Thomson. Besides, what I've written can be found on the book's back cover.

For a change, a book was sent to me to review for amazon that I liked. Several others that were sent to me were quite good and a few others were a struggle to get through, with one that I couldn't finish, even though I tried again and again to get into it. Happily, this is one of the former. I highly recommend ONCE A SPY to anyone who likes their suspense liberally laced with humor. 5 Stars

I have to thank the friend who asked if I wanted to borrow this book. I had not heard of the author or the book, but I decided to take a chance. Boy, am I ever glad I did. This is a seriously funny, engaging, entertaining, exciting and well written book. I'm not an expert in the thriller genre of novels, but I have read a few and lots of them have been excellent books. This one ranks right up there with some of my favorites.

Poor Charlie Clark can't win enough on the horses to keep himself out of trouble. Now he owes big money to Grudzev which is why he's at Aqueduct on Christmas morning having a very private look at the workout of a filly named Great Aunt Edith. If he can make a killing when she runs the next day he will have enough to pay that gambling debt. What Charlie gets the next day is a call from a Social Worker in Brooklyn asking him to come get his father who has wandered away from home. Charlie didn't realize his father had Alzheimer's Disease but his ears really perked up when he heard about that durable power of attorney. Except that once Charlie and Drummond Clark left the Prospect Park Senior Outreach Center odd things began to happen and strange people seemed to want to harm the old man. Charlie was in no way prepared for the news that his father wasn't a retired washing machine salesman, he was really a spy.

This is not a standard rendition of the spy/thriller novel. This one is presented by an author who has a smile on his face the whole time he's showing the absurdity of how this father and son team elude and out maneuver the "experts". There are double crosses, nobody is who they seem to be, and bullets are flying hot and fast. Charlie is just about the most unaccomplished man on the face of the earth and would never have survived if it hadn't been for those times of lucidity when his father's training and knowledge returned with a vengeance. These two get into and out of impossible circumstances and I was cheering for them all the way. Was it realistic? Absolutely not, but I still enjoyed every chapter. I chuckled at the dry, ironic wit evinced by this author in his telling of the story of the little guys against an entire intelligence agency. The author handled the subject of Drummond suffering from early onset Alzheimer's with great sympathy and never did I feel he was patronizing or insensitive to that devastating condition. Keith Thomson did a great job with a very touchy subject. When I left Charlie, Drummond and Alice (you'll have to find out about Alice yourself) they were literally flying off into the sunrise. It should have been the sunset, as per the American Western films, but what can you do. I will be eagerly awaiting a renewal of my acquaintance with them in the next book Twice a Spy: A Novel due out soon.

I'll admit on the front end that when I read it, it seemed that there were a lot of convenient coincidences that got the characters out of a fix now and again. But when I envisioned the book as a movie that was a thriller/action movie with a wry sense of humor, it made perfect sense. I loved it.

It's extremely fast paced and made me chuckle at least every other chapter. If you start it you'll read it quickly and then be ready for Twice A Spy.

I very much wanted to like this book. I'm intrigued by the idea of a Walter Mitty character who turns out to be a super-spy (Gene Hackman did a wonderful job with this). Somehow this was just one of those books that couldn't quite grip.... and I confess that I've opened it, started it, put it down, (repeat) numerous times. Some books just don't grab you by the throat, this one couldn't grab me at all. The dialog almost works, but then it falls over its own feet:
"It's nothing like that."
"Okay what's it like?"
"It's complicated."
"How about I get twenty questions?"
"I can't talk about it."
"Why the hell not?"
"For one thing, knowing would put you in jeopardy."
"As opposed to say, now?"

A bit cliche, but not terrible. But then he goes on...

'Drummond nodded, ceding the point. He began to speak, only to stop.'

Argh.