Tag: thriller

#BookReview #Ad Birthright by Charles Lambert @BelgraviaB

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BirthrightAbout the Book

Sixteen-year-old Fiona wants for nothing: hers is a life of comfort and privilege. But not of happiness. Her already distant relationship with her mother is stretched further by the sudden death of her beloved father. When she discovers an old newspaper clipping of an unknown woman with a little girl who looks exactly like her, she sees the chance to escape and find her true family.

Aided by Patrick, her charming but manipulative boyfriend, she tracks down her sister Maddy, in Rome. And with her, the mother she always dreamed of.

But to Maddy this strange girl wearing her face seems to want more than to reconnect. She seems to be stalking her every move and wants to claim Maddy’s life for her own. Maddy wants nothing to do with this unsettingly familiar stranger. Unfortunately, those around her have other ideas.

Caught in a game of cat and mouse, Fiona and Maddy are both fascinated and repulsed by one another. But they aren’t the only ones playing and soon the girls must decide who to trust, and who to protect. Will blood prove thicker than water?

Format: Paperback (416 pages)          Publisher: Gallic Books
Publication date: 22nd March 2023 Genre: Thriller, Mystery

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My Review

I was a big fan of Charles Lambert’s previous book, The Bone Flower.  (My husband, who is not a prolific reader, gave it the thumbs up as well.)  Therefore I was pleased to be given the opportunity to read the author’s latest book.  Billed as a psychological thriller, I would say the psychological aspect is definitely the main focus of the first two thirds of the book as the author deftly explores the dynamics between two young women each of whom were previously unaware of the other’s existence.

When Fiona discovers she has a twin sister and that her mother, Anne, is not her birth mother it acts as a kind of confirmation of the reason for their fractious relationship. The woman in the newspaper photograph seems more like the caring, easygoing mother Fiona should have had, leaving her feeling she has been cheated. I have to say I did feel slightly sorry for Anne because of the cold manner with which Fiona treats her, upping sticks and moving to Rome in pursuit of Maddy. And it does seem like a pursuit, because of the degree of subterfuge involved, including a ploy which is a homage to Frederick Forsyth’s novel, The Day of the Jackal.

I confess my sympathies lay more with Maddy who suddenly finds she has a sister – an identical twin sister at that – and one who is intent on inserting herself into her life.  Fiona is convinced that, being twins, there must be a natural connection between them. ‘How wonderful it would be to share a soul, to have that bond with someone, better than love, because love can fade or turn into hate; to have something that would always be there…’ She’s always looking for opportunities to point out the similarities between them, seeming to feel that because they look identical they must be identical.  But Maddy can only see the differences.  Fiona has had a privileged, financially secure upbringing whilst Maddy’s has been a hand-to-mouth, nomadic one caused by her mother’s inability to hold down a job and growing dependence on alcohol.  Even where they live demonstrates that difference: Fiona in a smart apartment, Maddy in a small, rundown flat.  At one point, Maddy goes out of her way to demonstrate that difference.

Each of them though at some point imagines being the other. Maddy muses, ‘Maybe I should take over everything… Her life, her flat. Her money. I’d be such an improvement on the original’.  Catching a bus to Maddy’s flat, Fiona reflects that Maddy would never take a taxi. ‘Today she wanted to be Maddy, or as close to Maddy as she could get. She wanted to be the daughter her mother had chosen.’

Fiona idealises Heather, her birth mother, finding every opportunity she can to spend time alone with her, even involving her longtime friend, Ludovico, in distracting Maddy’s attention. But Maddy sees only the damaged woman she has had to singlehandedly care for.  It’s difficult enough for Fiona and Maddy to deal with the fact Heather chose to give one of them away, depriving both of them of a sister and one of them of growing up with their birth mother. But what if that’s not the whole story?

The disruptor in the story is Patrick, Fiona’s boyfriend, who we know from pretty much early on is a wrong’un.  He’s clever but that cleverness is directed towards taking advantage of opportunities to manipulate others for his own benefit.  His involvement introduces the thriller element of the book with the author really ratcheting up the tension and the melodrama as the book moves to its conclusion, whilst also leaving some tantalising questions to be resolved in the epilogue.

Birthright is an absorbing combination of suspenseful mystery and complex family drama.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of Gallic Books.

In three words: Insightful, intriguing, engrossing

Try something similar: My Secret Sister by Lauren Westwood

Charles LambertAbout the Author

Charles Lambert is the author of several novels, short stories, and the memoir With a Zero at its Heart, which was voted one of The Guardian readers’ Ten Best Books of the Year in 2014. In 2007, he won an O. Henry Award for his short story The Scent of Cinnamon. His first novel, Little Monsters, was longlisted for the 2010 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. His novel Prodigal was shortlisted for the Polari Prize for LGBTQ writing in 2019. Born in England, Charles Lambert has lived in central Italy since 1980. (Photo: Goodreads author page)

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#BlogTour #BookReview #Ad The Spy Across the Water by James Naughtie @AriesFiction

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The Spy Across the Water BLOG TOUR BANNER_tsatwWelcome 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.

The Spy Across the WaterAbout 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

Naughtie, JamesAbout 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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