Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for The Spy Across the Water by James Naughtie. My thanks to Andrew at Head of Zeus for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my review copy.
About the Book
We live with our history, but it can kill us.
Faces from the past appear from nowhere at a family funeral, and Will Flemyng, spy-turned-ambassador, is drawn into twin mysteries that threaten everything he holds dear.
From Washington, he’s pitched back into the Troubles in Northern Ireland and an explosive secret hidden deep in the most dangerous but fulfilling friendship he has known.
And while he confronts shadowy adversaries in American streets, and looks for solace at home in the Scottish Highlands, he discovers that his government’s most precious Cold War agent is in mortal danger and needs his help to survive.
In an electric story of courage and betrayal, Flemyng learns the truth that his life has left him a man with many friends, but still alone.
Format: Hardback (416 pages) Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 2nd March 2023 Genre: Thriller
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My Review
The Spy Across the Water is the third instalment in James Naughtie’s spy series featuring the three Flemyng brothers – Will, Abel and Mungo. In fact, we’re down to two brothers now which is not a spoiler because Abel’s funeral is the opening scene in the book. However, the circumstances, if not the place, of Abel’s death are still a mystery, something Will is determined to discover more about. When he does it forms one of the threads of an intricately woven tapestry that is the hallmark of all good spy thrillers.
Set in 1985, the story is fiction (as the author points out in the Foreword) but the historical events which form the background to it are real, namely the tentative and secret discussions between the British and Irish governments aimed at reaching a settlement to the conflict in Northern Ireland, the so-called Troubles. The tensions between those in the Republican movement willing to consider a negotiated settlement and those who are determined to continue the armed struggle are incorporated into the storyline as Will’s past intelligence role and the connections he made during that period come back to haunt him.
I’m not quite sure how I managed to miss the earlier books in the series because this sort of spy thriller is right up my street. The fact I hadn’t read the previous two books didn’t stop me enjoying this one although tantalising references to events in the earlier books – Paris in the summer of 1968, a puzzling death and an affair that destroyed one of Will’s colleagues – made me wish I’d discovered the series at its beginning.
The comparison to the novels of John le Carré is spot on, particularly when it comes to the storyline involving the possibility that the identity of a Soviet agent working for the British, who has been supplying intelligence material that is ‘gold dust’, has been discovered by the Americans, possibly by a mole at the heart of US intelligence. We’re in real Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy territory here with Will Flemyng’s protege, Patrick Keane, fulfilling the Peter Guillam role in that book. And if we’re looking for more comparisons there’s James Jesus Angleton (a real life figure), convinced there’s a conspiracy around every corner, who made me think of Control’s feverish search for the identity of the Circus mole in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. As a former comrade of Will’s recalls, ‘He was getting more and more obssessive about penetration – disappearing into his files for weeks on end, the blinds down in his eyrie and no one allowed near.’
I liked how Will, secretive by nature as well as the possessor of secrets, feeds Keane just enough snippets of information so that Keane has to figure things out for himself. Keane also does the legwork and takes the risks that Will no longer can because of his role as Ambassador, although you get the impression he’d quite like to if the chance arose. The team is completed by Lucy, one of the few people who can read Will’s moods and second guess his next move. If I’m being picky I’d have liked a bigger role for her than preparing papers, organising flights and booking hotel rooms. And I’d love to know more about Will’s relationship with his wife and children who at this point are back in London.
Some of my favourite parts of the book were those set in Altnabuie, the Flemyng family home in Perthshire, Scotland currently occupied by Will’s older brother, Mungo. I loved the descriptions of Mungo’s daily tramps and the local scenery which (sorry, another comparison coming) reminded me of the writing of John Buchan, also a Perthshire man. ‘The tapestry had light and shade, the dark foliage of the pines and spruce in the wood standing out against the vivid greens and yellows on the hillside. The water on the loch was swept with sun, then blackened again when the lines of light disappeared.’ When Mungo’s peaceful life appears threatened, Will has even more incentive to get to the bottom of things and to find the link between a number of seemingly unconnected events, a link that tantalisingly eludes him for quite a while.
The Spy Across the Water is a terrific spy thriller whose intricate plot will keep you on your toes. You get the clear sense the author’s experience as a BBC correspondent has helped the story’s feeling of authenticity, especially the detail of Washington political manouverings and rivalries. But it’s also a story of friendship against the odds and the compromises that have to be made between duty and personal relationships.
In three words: Gripping, intricate, suspenseful
About the Author
James Naughtie is a special correspondent for BBC News, for which he has reported around the world. He presented Today on BBC Radio 4 for 21 years. On the Road: Adventures from Nixon to Trump is an account of five decades of travel and work in the United States. This is his third novel. He lives in Edinburgh and London.
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