Ex-spy’s poisoning reads like a thriller
It’s a murder mystery filled with intrigue reminiscent of the Cold War  there’s a retired Russian spy poisoned by a radioactive substance, a secret dossier, a slain investigative journalist and a shadowy fugitive billionaire.
But the story of the agonizing death of Alexander Litvinenko is an up-to-the-minute tale of politics, power and betrayal. And the final chapter of this spy thriller has not yet been written.
The most crucial questions remain unanswered: Was Litvinenko’s death murder? Who killed him? Where did they get the poison?
Most intriguingly, who might have ordered his death?
Isn’t it amazing how literature written to evince verisimilitude sometimes resembles things that happen in “real life”?
Amazing? Positively spooky….
Verisimilitude wasn’t exactly the strong suit of Wilkie Collins, G.K. Chesterton, Christie etc.. Dan.
But if you’re thinking Boris and Natasha–fair enough. Point taken.
John le Carre, Graham Greene, Gavin Lyall, Frederick Forsyth?
Len Deighton – best of breed for Cold War spy novelists. His “trilogy of trilogies” starting with Berlin Game and ending 9 novels later with Charity pits his British covert agent protagonist Bernard Samson against the Russians and their Warsaw Pact allies, often including his coworkers in the British MI5.
A close second to the Jack Aubrey novels of Patrick O’Brian for a good fun read on a cold winter day.
Be unusual for an MI5 man to be working in Berlin. Try another number.
Please do not use the failure of my review to correctly identify the number (MI6?) as an indictment of the book. The books were good when I read them, starting 25 years ago. Thanks for the correction.
No, your taste in books is extremely sound. I agree on Aubrey too.
Hear, hear. Either somebody needs to take a whack at writing more Aubrey the way O’Brian did, or Peter Weir needs to make some more Aubrey movies. Maybe that’d keep Russell Crowe out of pub fights.
Re: John le Carre, Graham Greene, Gavin Lyall, Frederick Forsyth?
Hey where’s Ludlum? Did Litvinenko have salt-and-pepper eyebrows, speak in italics when he realized something very important and begin every third sentence with “Frankly…”?
Ludlum got drummed out of the clique for letting Matt Damon play one of his heroes.
I must respectfully disagree. I thought Mr. Damon acquitted himself well in both films. However, the purist in me objects to the liberty they took with the storylines.
the Len Deighton books were excellent. I wish I could find them so I could read them again.
McGehee:
Gotta second Filet Mignon here. It was those movies that convinced me to stop sighing and rolling my eyes like Al Gore in a debate whenever someone praised this actor.
McCarry, has turned out down right prophetic, in a scary way. As a longtime former Company man, he had a great deal of material to draw on. His first book, the Miernik Dossier; tied the middle east and the East bloc together, in a challenging whodone it.Years ago, he predicted the likes of Al Queda; as the nihilist suicide bombing Eye of Gaza, in the Better Angels. The mastermind, was an austere Arab prince, from the oil rich nation of Hagreb; with a penchant for acquiring tactical nuclear weapons. He predicted a world where computers would manage the vote; and could be tampered; ala Venezuela, today. Where the media would be so irrevocably opposed to a center right, pro-life former businessman as President; it would paint him as a Dictator in waiting. His portrait of a supercilious Yale educated former Navy veteran,turned politico, Julian Hubbard, with a penchant for deception and grandstanding:His classmate,Patrick Graham,a leftist agent of influence, with a nightly talkshow, tied to a shadowy leftist network(Fill in the blank people) and this was nearly thirty years ago. An re-organized intelligence operation; using financial and industrial cover; instead of diplomacy. His followup; Shelley’s Heart, published shortly before the impeachment crisis, and the election recount saga, predicted both events with a liberal cabal;Moveon meets Skull & Bones; who would impeach an otherwise president for authorizing in a radical yet necesary covert operation; that replicated a similar plot on the West Wing. A similar subplot with a touch of Da Vinci Code eschatology
is detailed in his last book; Old Boys
I was not a member of the clique. I was merely reporting what happened.
With a new Cold War descending on us, I hope Le Carre has enough inspiration to get back his artistic chops. His latest efforts have been so full of West-hating, nancy-boy hand-wringing that I have long since stopped reading him.
But the Smiley trilogy was absolute brilliance. I own the Alec Guinness verion of Smiley’s People, and it is a work of art.
Le Carre is getting a trifle long in the tooth. It’s probably most charitable to attribute his more recent output to senility. At least Dick Francis had the grace to admit it and quit.
McCarry is scary
Makes one wonder if wronwright[1] has neglected security precautions around the tardis again, though to be fair it’s a little ambiguous just when the breach occurred…
Regards,
Ric
[1] I figure enough of the posters here also visit Blair to make the reference useful.