Results tagged “Espionage” from One Hour to Read

This was quite a gripping espionage story. This isn't one of my normal genres, but the novel was very entertaining.

My mother read it before me. She liked it too, but she had one complaint. She didn't like what the author Noel Hynd (who I know) said about Vladimir Putin. She didn't think he was necessarily wrong. However, she felt that he shouldn't have said such bad things about Putin, because Putin might come after him. I tried to explain to my mother that Putin probably has many other enemies on his list ahead of Noel Hynd. Personally, I think Noel's quite safe, but she's still worried.

For her sake, I won't say anything bad about Putin here. Such a nice man, that Putin. 

Okay, I finished reading this awhile back and I really thought that I had already posted about it. In short, I loved it, I loved the whole experience. When I was younger, I read all of the James Bond books, he was just so cool, in the truest sense of the word. My favourite thing about James Bond was his flexibility and his ingenuity. His ability to think on the fly really because if there's one thing about those books, it's that there's always a jam to get out of. So, why am I writing about James Bond when this isn't an Ian Fleming book? Because Richard Hannay really brought him to mind. The short story, Hannay's a retired soldier that is finding retirement a little dull. He offers the city an ultimatum: provide a little excitement or I'm on the next ship out of here. When he gets home, he's approached by a mysterious neighbour who asks for his help in a matter of international espionage (when I'm bored, I prefer that a friend shows up for coffee). There is a secret cabal planning to assassinate the Greek Premier... maybe... but he doesn't really know the guy so he could be lying... or it could be an even bigger conspiracy... maybe. I'm not sure that any of it is completely laid bare but you do know pretty quickly that this business is serious as the mysterious neighbour is killed within the week and Hannay has to outrun both the villains (which may or may not be real) and the police who would like to know why there's a dead body in his room.

There was a tangible sense of pace to this book, you could feel the noose drawing tight around Hannay's neck at different times and it was a pleasure to watch him think so quickly on his feet (much like James Bond). The other common characteristic is the GIANT HORSESHOE THAT HE HAS UP HIS ASS (pardon the language). Not since James Bond have I seen a character that is so bloody LUCKY! At least he appreciates it, Richard Hannay has moments of great humour in his chase:

As I sat on the hillside, watching the tail-light dwindle, I reflected on the various types of crime I had now sampled.  Contrary to general belief, I was not a murderer, but I had become an unholy liar, a shameless imposter, and a highwayman with a marked taste for expensive motor-cars.

This after he carjacks a touring coupe being driven Marmaduke Jopley (and wouldn't that make a great name for a Bond villain?), the biggest boor that he had met in London.  So, a little grand theft auto, a little comeuppance, it's all good.  All of this from a book that barely clears 100 pages and apparently he stars in three more novels.

Hannay, Richard Hannay.  Doesn't really have the same ring to it even if Daniel Craig would have been great in the movie.

My Life as a CIA Spy

To say this book is a disappointment is in some ways a compliment. Lindsay Moran writes a book about spying that, while funny and entertaining, is also somewhat mundane. I was pretty excited to read a book by a real-life spy, but it turns out the life of a spy can be pretty routine at times.

For example, at one point, Moran complains about how all the time talking with informants in parked cars and restaurants and typing up reports in the office has caused her to get fat. This is not the sort of thing that happened to James Bond. (Well, except maybe during the later Roger Moore years.)

Her work was dangerous at times, though honestly Moran doesn't seem to make a big deal about the danger. This is perhaps because of the mostly light tone she uses throughout the book.

Despite that light tone, she was not a happy spy. She quickly grew disillusioned with the Agency. The agents the CIA encouraged her to recruit never seemed to know anything important. The actual work she did seemed useless. And too often her bosses were stuck in a Cold War mindset. It didn't help that she also had ethical qualms about the whole process of recruiting agents, in which one preys on the weaknesses of foreigners in an attempt to get them to turn over information about their country.

The biggest problem with being a spy, however, is the loneliness. When you're a spy, you can never tell people too much about your life, and it's tough to have a lasting relationship with someone when you can't even reveal what you do during the day. (Bond, obviously, wasn't too bothered by this.) And when she did decide to date someone, she needed to divulge everything to the CIA on long, bureaucratic forms, so that they could determine whether the man in question was a spy or not.
 
Of course, there were exceptions. Men didn't need to report any encounters with prostitutes, as long as they made sure not to go back to the same prostitute twice. That apparently is not a security risk. Just in case you were wondering.