Old Flames by John Lawton

"I don't know about Freddie Troy, " said my husband as he finished the last page of Old Flames by John Lawton, a book I had finished just the week before, "he's selfish, unprincipled, completely unpredictable, violent, and snobbish." I agree, I said, as I reached for the next book in the series, "I don't know how he has survived in Scotland Yard this long or why he has any friends." Despite this dismay at Freddie's lamentable character, we both have grown almost to like him and to be deeply interested in other books in the series which might explain more about how he got to be this way.

Old Flames is set in Britain in 1956. In the depths of the Cold War, Nikita Krushchev is in London on a state visit. Because Chief Inspector Freddie Troy, chief of the murder squad at Scotland Yard is fluent in Russian he is assigned to be a bodyguard to Krushchev, and also to spy on him. Troy is the son of a Russian emigre, a former Anarchist and founder of a national newspaper chain. He is an influential policeman and also a friend to many leaders in government and politics. Right from the start it is obvious Special Branch are not being straight with Troy. MI6 have been warned to keep at arms length from Krushchev's visit, but it seems clear they are involved in some way when the Soviets accuse Britain of sending a frogman to spy on their ship docked at Portsmouth. Later a navy diver is found dead and mutilated in the harbor. Troy is involved in investigating the death when the man's supposed widow denies that the body can be her husband's. As Troy discovers layer upon layer of conspiracy reaching right into the heart of MI6 and back into his own past, it seems he only has to uncover a lead before his contact is murdered. Meanwhile, another source of danger threatens Troy as he attempts to aid an old lover now fleeing the KGB.

This story is based on a time in Britain when several infamous spies in the British Establishment were uncovered after years of betraying not only their country but their class. Fans of John LeCarre and Len Deighton will recognize the pervading sense of austerity, despair, and distrust, and the secret world based on country houses, clubs, and a crumbling class system. Just as Deighton's Bernard Samson is conscious of the tradition of the Secret Services handed down to him by the legendary agent who was his father, Troy is conscious always of the traditions of his own family. Old Flames is an interesting examination of the nature of belonging and betrayal.

Other books like this:

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John Le Carre

Charity by Len Deighton

Judas Factor by Ted Allbeury

Christopher's Ghosts: a Paul Christopher Novel by Charles McCarry

The novels of Alan Furst and Daniel Silva bring the spy novel into the post-Cold war era.