The shadow spy

Collier Spymasters

by Nicholas Luard

Blackmailed by British Intelligence, a down-and-out loner living in a London flophouse is coerced into assuming the identity of a man who never existed and into entering the world of international intrigue

Genres: Thriller

232 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1979

About the author

Nicholas Lamert Luard was a writer and politician.

He was educated at Winchester College and Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he read English and was taught by F.R. Leavis. He met Peter Cook through Footlights. A very short academic career was replaced by club management on the strength of a legacy. He co-founded The Establishment in the early 1960s with Peter Cook.

He then went into writing. He was one of the Lords Gnome of Private Eye.

With Chris Brasher, Nigel Hawkins and Denis Mollison, he founded the John Muir Trust in 1983. Nick served as Chairman from 1991 to 1997.

Luard stood as a candidate for the Referendum Party in the 1997 general election, against Michael Portillo in Enfield Southgate.

Luard married Elisabeth Longmore, the food writer, in 1962.

Reviews

[Thrillers R Us · Rating 4 out of 5]

Languishing as a side character in the least appreciated film of the STAR WARS trilogy for fourteen years, Admiral Ackbar came to greater prominence after RETURN OF THE JEDI hit theaters with much fanfare for another major run via a "Special Edition" in 1997. A strong meme game doing the heavy lifting some time after RETURN OF THE JEDI turned thirty in 2003, General Ackbar is forever impressed upon canon due to his memorable and quotable line after finding the Death Star shielded and fully operational during the Battle of Endor. A spy thriller's spy thriller, THE SHADOW SPY is an extensive yarn of elaborate tradecraft, intrigue, and deception, putting the British intelligence world on full display, trying to lure one of their own to come in from the cold. As such, for those dealing with espionage and trained in the shadow arts, "It's a trap."

In the continental quagmire, that space between Europe and Africa, around Gibraltar, where squalor, summer heat and dust mix with century old traditions of war, trouble is brewing for the Intel world. When adding piracy, smuggling, ambush, intrigue, and slaughter, the services of one man, a special man, are needed. It's not James Bond. It's Steele, just one name, like Madonna and Pele, red of hair, broad of shoulders and retired, of course. Just when he thought he could plink away his life with sequential business failures, an obscure arm of the intelligence services, associated with the War Office comes-a-calling. All on her majesty's secret service. No big time money, no connections, and not like the rest of his fellow officers, all Steele ever wanted to be was an excellent officer. After leaving the service, he's the bumbling gang of bullies in THE BIG LEBOWSKI; he believes in nothing. Not anymore. As always, the Brits have an ace up their sleeve to force him back into service. Steele will be operating under or because of Article 49, whatever that means...

In the tradition of WHITE SANDS, Steele's bait, to act as honey pot. The rub is that an invented asset now needs a physical body to tie up loose ends, all to preserve OpSec and spy networks already in place. Steele is Ross Callum and Ross Callum is Steele, competent, professional, tough. He's another man for one week, with his boat, contacts, his women, his glamor, his gold. All to bring in a wayward and disgruntled agent. That's it. What could go wrong? Well, with a silent brutal war waged in sadism and viciousness making victims of anyone caught in its path, plus a Maltese bad guy, the sky's the limit in THE SHADOW SPY. Proffering that after the rifle, good light is a sniper's best friend, THE SHADOW SPY is chock full of crack-shot villains, caviar weakness, dames, and more Kruegerrands than LETHAL WEAPON 2. Coming in at about 232 pages, THE SHADOW SPY is a quick and savage read, a deft Ian Fleming novel on steroids, where the last 50 pages shine and are really good. The preceding is merely preamble and setup that could easily have been dealt with in a chapter or two. Nonetheless, THE SHADOW SPY expertly throws it back to the murky times where spies were spies and the world of smoke and mirrors was still devoid of black screens. Grab a cloak and dagger and let Steele lead the way into a world of danger, excitement, heat, seduction, and violence-- in THE SHADOW SPY, the action is the juice.

[BradMD · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got bored and quit reading it.