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Visibility [Hardcover]

Boris Starling (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)


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Book Description

March 1, 2007
International espionage and hardcore detective work make for a dangerous combination in this dazzling novel set in 1950s London, from the acclaimed international bestselling author of Messiah.

It’s the height of the Cold War, and as the Great Fog rolls in over London, a man meets his death in the icy shallows of the Long Water. Some say he was just drunk, wandering through Hyde Park. But for Scotland Yard’s new detective, Herbert Smith, the body will lead to a far more interesting trail when it’s discovered that the young victim’s death was no accident. He was a biochemist, and just hours before he died he had claimed to be in possession of a secret that could change the world. Smith tried to turn his back on the murky world of spies when he traded in his job at MI5, but now he’s being tailed again, thinly veiled threats emerge, and Scotland Yard cannot insulate him against an underworld of international conspiracies. The CIA, the KGB, and even MI5 had every reason to want the dead man’s secret, even kill for it. As the body count climbs, it’s clear that each time Smith inches closer to the truth, he gets closer to his own perilous demise.

An evocative, gritty, realistic page-turner full of fascinating historical details and brilliant plot twists, Visibility marks a spine-tingling new achievement in Cold War thrillers.


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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of this smart, intriguing puzzle from British author Starling (Vodka), Herbert Smith, "once of the British Army, latterly of MI5" and now a detective with "the Metropolitan Police's Murder Squad," draws the case of a drowned man found in a Hyde Park pond. Normally, this would be a rare occurrence, but it's 1952 and London is gripped in a fog so miasmic that stumbling into a pond can easily be written off as a simple accident. It's not, of course, and Smith's investigations bring him into contact with a scientist who possesses a secret that will change the future; a beautiful, blind police diver, Hannah Mortimer; several Russian spies; British turncoats; and a Nazi so reviled that even today his name evokes absolute evil. Where most thriller writers plumb the depths of imagination for their earth-shattering secrets, Starling does just the opposite by employing the reality of history. It's a difficult trick, but once again he pulls it off with panache. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gloomy post-World War II London is brought to life in this combo espionage tale and noir mystery from former kidnap negotiator Starling. In the winter of 1952, the Great Fog has rolled into London, shutting down most transportation routes and sickening the populace with its noxious haze. Herbert Smith, drummed out of MI5 as the patsy for a bungled Soviet spy caper, is now a detective inspector in the murder division at New Scotland Yard, where he is treated with harsh wariness by his fellow policemen. Assigned to investigate a suspicious drowning, Smith discovers that the victim, a young biochemist and son of a highly placed government official, in the hours before his death had claimed to be in possession of a discovery that could change the world. Smith's inquiries create a panic in the covert world as agents from his own MI5 as well as the Soviet Union and U.S. (along with a renegade Nazi mad scientist) intrude into his investigation. Recommended for fans of le Carre and Forsyth along with readers who enjoy English police procedurals. Michael Gannon
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

  • Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  • Hardcover: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Dutton Adult; 1 edition (March 1, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0525949968
  • ISBN-13: 978-0525949961
  • Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,843,266 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

11 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (5)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars fast-paced 1950s whodunit spy thriller, March 4, 2007
This review is from: Visibility (Hardcover)
In 1952 former M15 operative, Herbert Smith works as a homicide detective with the Metropolitan Police's Murder Squad. His current case seems like a no brainer accident caused by the thick fog; a man drowned in a Kensington Gardens pond.

However instead of closing the book, Smith tries to at least uncover the identity of the dead floater. He succeeds as the deceased is King's College graduate student Max Stensness. The sleuth also learns that Max was gay and an active member of the Communist Party. Smith finds a tie to his former M15 boss, odious Richard de Vere Green. Hating Green whose treachery cost him his MI5 position, Smith keeps digging hoping to destroy his sneaky deceitful supervisor. Smith begins to find a connection to the Russians and the Americans as Stensness was apparently selling top-secret DNA information to the highest bidder, but the detective wonders if Green was the silent partner.

Using real people like double Nobel Prize winner Pauling and incognito Nazi criminal Mengele to anchor the 1950s anti-Communist fervor that swept America (McCarthy era -sounds similar to today's official scares) and somewhat England, Boris Starling provides readers with an exciting deep espionage thriller. The story line looks at the salad days of DNA research combining it with the Red scare and the WWII aftermath still devastatingly visible in foggy London. Readers will appreciate this fast-paced period piece that grips the audience with a whodunit spy thriller.

Harriet Klausner
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Okay but the careless anachronisms spoil it., October 28, 2008
By 
NTS (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews
This is an entertaining enough thriller in its way but it is set in 1952 and the anachronisms that pepper the book spoil it - stumbling across them is like biting on tinfoil while enjoying a chocolate bar. For example: in 1952 no British policeman would have described a white person as Caucasian. In fact, they wouldn't even today. That is not part of British police terminology. The British term for an autopsy then was a post mortem. Before the influence of TV, no one would have used the term ID for identification. No one used the word "party" as a verb in those days. The hero of the book would not have been able to remember seeing a potential suicide at Embankment tube station because in 1952 there was no such place. Belmarsh Prison was not opened until 1991. The popular idioms "out of the lop", "up front", "economical with the truth" had not yet come into the language, neither had the practice of making quotation marks in the air with one's fingers when expressing skepticism.

It's a shame the author was not more careful abut getting things right, because these blips spoil what isn't really a bad little novel.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Great Post World War II Spy Story, November 22, 2011
This review is from: Visibility (Hardcover)
As a fearful fog moves through London, Herbert Smith of London's murder squad is on the hunt for a suspect who killed a young scientist in the murky waters of Long Water. London is gripped by this fog which is such a pea souper that it causes ambulances and police to lose their way and hinders people who become lost though they know the area as well as the back of their hand. The fog is also toxic and it makes many people sick and unable to breathe. The hospitals are full of people suffering from breathing difficulties and bronchial ailments. Herbert meets many people of interest in his quest to find the killer. During his investigation he makes friends with Hannah, a blind diver who searches the river for evidence in the case. Her help proves to be invaluable in the fog since she doesn't depend on sight to help her get around.

Shady characters come out of the woodwork and spies are around every corner. It seems that the young scientist had proof of something that could change the entire world.

After the war, there was spy activity from Russia, England, USA and elsewhere. The hunt was on for Nazi war criminals and there were hunts for communists. And everyone wanted intelligence. Who could be trusted? Who was a spy? Who was a Nazi, or a commie or a double agent? Who had secrets that could change the world? The unsettled atmosphere of post World War II is present in this spy caper set in enshrouding fog in the city by the Thames. The dense fog adds to the mysterious atmosphere as the story skips back and forth between Nazi occupation and the hunt for the mysterious killer where the suspect list grows with each piece of evidence that Herbert discovers.

I really enjoyed this story. It was the first book I've read by Boris Starling and I will look for more of his work. If you like a good post World War II yarn with all the paranoia and intrigue, this is a great story and it is filled with the atmosphere of London in 1952.
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