The Last Two Weeks of Georges Rivac

by Geoffrey Household

Danger is afoot for a European businessman with a secret to hide. There's also death on the steamer crossing the English Channel. Who hurled a passenger into the churning sea?

244 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

British author of mostly thrillers, though among 37 books he also published children's fiction. Household's flight-and-chase novels, which show the influence of John Buchan, were often narrated in the first person by a gentleman-adventurer. Among his best-know works is' Rogue Male' (1939), a suggestive story of a hunter who becomes the hunted, in 1941 filmed by Fritz Lang as 'Man Hunt'. Household's fast-paced story foreshadowed such international bestsellers as Richard Condon's thriller 'The Manchurian Candidate' (1959), Frederick Forsyth's 'The Day of the Jackal' (1971), and Ken Follett's 'Eye of the Needle' (1978) .

In 1922 Household received his B.A. in English from Magdalen College, Oxford, and between 1922 and 1935 worked in commerce abroad, moving to the US in 1929. During World War II, Household served in the Intelligence Corps in Romania and the Middle East. After the War he lived the life of a country gentleman and wrote. In his later years, he lived in Charlton, near Banbury, Oxfordshire, and died in Wardington.

Household also published an autobiography, 'Against the Wind' (1958), and several collections of short stories, which he himself considered his best work.

Reviews

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the fourth novel of Household's I've read. It's a bit different from the others in that it's more a Buchan novel, more like The 39 Steps, even though everything else I've read by him can easily be slotted into a Buchan-esque tradition.

There's no slow build - Rivac, a businessman in a small French town - is plunged into international intrigue virtually from the beginning, even if it takes a couple of chapters for him to wake up to this fact. There's a love interest. There's all sorts of exciting action, and here you can make out Household's stamp, because there is as much running and hiding, if not more, than actual fighting.

Rivac and his Hungarian companion, Zia Fodor, are not old hands at the espionage game, but each has a set of skills and experiences that make them able to adapt to the challenge. This comprises lots of exciting stuff, played out against the background of Europe divided by the Iron Curtain and the Byzantine complexity of British Intelligence. A small but colourful supporting caste, and larger than usual for Household.

Things work out for our young lovers on the run, but a few significant life changes lie ahead of them. A far more extroverted and optimistic novel than anything else I've read by Household, then, but up to his usual standard nonetheless.

[Sketchbook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hitchcockian intrigue. Rivac, an ambitious export agent
in France, is asked x a client to deliver a McGuffin in
London. He agrees: a favor might expand business. The UK
contacts however don't know what he's talking about and
shoo him away. Soon he reads that his client is dead. What
next? Cherchez la femme and Household has only reached
Chapt 2 in this snappy entertainment that soars on Russian
secrets finding delivery in the West. Can the innocent
Rivac survive politico stratagems?

[Rob Adey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Complicated and (to me) near-incomprehensible thriller in which everyone seems to jump to convoluted conclusions about what the other people will do. Still, lots of hiding in woods. Suspect Geoffrey Household really wanted to just write a book called 101 Brilliant Places For Dens.

[Derek Collett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Written just a year after Hostage:London, which I thoroughly enjoyed reading earlier this year, The Last Two Weeks of Georges Rivac proved to be a real disappointment. It's confusing, rambling and, surprisingly for this author, not very exciting at all.

The opening chapters of this novel are so similar to the early works of Eric Ambler (the innocent bystander caught up in extraordinary goings-on) that I wondered for a bit whether Household was possibly attempting a parody. He sets up a good European-based spy story and when the action then switches to England the book continues in a promising vein. Rivac, the central character, and Zia Fodor, a beautiful Hungarian spy of sorts who helps him (not very convincing at all this girl), then go on the run from some murderous pursuers in search of top-secret military information. This is of course classic Household territory but the thrills are nowhere near as thrilling as usual. Interestingly for me, the middle part of the book is set in my childhood stomping ground of the Thames Valley and features one or two rural locations that I could clearly recognize. But despite this unexpected layer of interest, the pursuit material was not very compelling at all, largely perhaps because the chase sequences themselves are just too short. However, up until the rough midpoint of the book, The Last Two Weeks of Georges Rivac is a readable (if hardly mesmeric) and enjoyable yarn.

The second half of the book lost me quite early on. More and more minor characters are introduced, some of them practically indistinguishable from each other and the caricatured 'ooh arr, ooh arr' village yokels are very tiresome. The plot becomes incredibly complicated whilst still being very boring. (I have to admit to having been very tired when I was reading most of the book but I don't think that accounts for its incomprehensibility.) A lot of the events towards the end of the book seem highly implausible and there is not even a good ending to get one's teeth into. It all feels very rushed, Household crams too many things into the book and I can't feeling that it would have been much better had he allowed his material to 'breathe' a bit more. The quality of the writing is quite sloppy and well below Household's usual standard. I can only think that he wrote this book too quickly because the writing is not a patch on that in Hostage:London. There are a few good scenes scattered among these pages but it's pretty thin gruel overall which is a great pity as I've come to expect so much more from this (generally reliable) author.

[Andrea Engle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightfully exciting tale of espionage and skullduggery ... Georges Rivas, a typical businessman in Lille, is innocently caught up in some dubious dealings, and must race for his life ... all sorts of chases and deceptions follow ... thrilling tale ...

[NCHS Library]

From Follett
Alfred Hitchcock in his prime, an innocent European businessman is inadvertently caught up in a murderous web of international intrigue and forced to run, hide, or die in the English countryside A man of considerable ambition, French and British export agent Georges Rivac is always eager to expand his client base, so he agrees without question to do a simple favor for an unknown Englishman. Charged with delivering an item to an address in London, Rivac is surprised to discover that his arrival is unexpected and unappreciated - and he' shocked to learn soon afterward that his new client is dead. Suddenly the confused businessman is himself a target, pursued by unknown assailants and forced to flee the city, taking refuge in the wilds of rural England. Relying on his wits and dormant survival skills, as well as the help of a beautiful Hungarian freedom fighter, Georges Rivac must now somehow get to the root of the deadly international conspiracy that has placed him in a killer's sights.

[Erik Tanouye · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got this at Second Story Books in Rockville on September 16, 2017.

[Daniel Polansky]

I read this book.

[Tansy Hepton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent thriller, with the trademark chase around the countryside. Not as great as his masterpiece Rogue Male, but certainly good enough for a holiday read, with a good cast of characters.

[Garick Cooke · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is my sixth Household novel and one of my least favorite. Household has created at least one unique character in the heroine Zia (for despite the title, it is she who is the prime mover in this story), but the plot--that of a fugitive going to ground in the English countryside--is too reminiscent of Rogue Male for its own good. This is Household late in his career, but lest we think he was in decline, he shortly produced The Sending, a bizarre and memorable supernatural thriller.