All Honourable Men

Gavin Lyall is an excellent, if somewhat under-rated, writer of adventures and spy novels. His latest offerings are set in the years just before World War I and feature Britain's recently established Secret Service Bureau - a small, low-budget, and rather amateur outfit establishing its usefulness through the force of character of its head and the dedicated service of its few operatives.Like others in the series "All Honourable Men" features as its protagonists the "odd couple" of agents: Ranklin, the very English army officer with his military career "on hold" through no fault of his own, and O'Gilroy, the streetwise Irish republican on the run from his former comrades. They each have their strengths and weaknesses - indeed Ranklin says that put together they make one (passable) agent. In this he sells them short. They are very human and engaging characters with their own reasons for the work they do, but they do it professionally and as a first-rate team.In this book they find themselves pitched not just into danger but into high politics. The Germans are building railway through Turkey, which doesn't suit Britain's interests. When they run into a problem they need British help in resolving, Ranklin and O'Gilroy are part of the team sent ostensibly to sort things out. In fact they have secret instructions to make them worse, while not getting killed, or (worse) found out. But they aren't the only ones with an agenda of their own. To Germany, Britain and Turkey add America (or at least American big business with its own interests to safeguard) and France, and you have a veritable witches' brew bubbling away in one of the world's political hot spots. The two spies are in for an eventful time.Lyall shows real skill in bringing people and situations to life. The detail is never oppressive but it transports you back to that vanished time. You get to know Ranklin, and O'Gilroy, and the others, and understand the world they live in and why they think and act the way they do. He also has his fair share of dry British wit and irony, and some fine turns of phrase that enhance your enjoyment while letting you learn more about Ranklin and O'Gilroy, and why they do what they do.