The Oxford gambit

Collier Spymasters

by Joseph Hone

Best possible copy of this first American edition novel, a tale of surprises and intrigues for the happy beekeeper and reluctant British Secret Service officer Lindsay Phillips. Brand new condition hardcover book in its also mint condition decorative dustjacket. An archival quality mylar cover has been professionally added to make it even nicer. Enjoy being the first to read this book!

305 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Joseph Hone (b. 1937) is a British author of spy novels. Born in London, he was sent to Dublin in 1939, and spent most of the next two decades living in Ireland. His first novel, The Private Sector (1971), introduced the globetrotting spy Peter Marlow—the character for whom Hone would become best known. Set during the Six Day War, The Private Sector was well received by critics, who have compared it to the work of Eric Ambler, Len Deighton, and John le Carré. Hone published three more titles in the series—The Sixth Directorate (1975), The Flowers of the Forest (1980), and The Valley of the Fox (1982)—before moving on to other work.

In addition to his espionage fiction, Hone has found success in travel writing. His most recent books include Wicked Little Joe (2009), a memoir, and Goodbye Again (2011).

Reviews

[Bill Yarbrough · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a long hard read, like reading a heavy text book from my University days. The author's writing was like that tough professor.

[Michael Martz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joseph Hone's "The Oxford Gambit" is an interesting take on the common (in the spy novel genre) 'there's a mole in the highest reaches of the spy service' trope. It's colored quite a bit by having been written not long after the great Philby escapade in England.

The story begins in the early 1970s with the sudden disappearance of Lindsay Phillips, an older spy in the Soviet/Slav arena of British intelligence. One minute he's tending to his bees on his country estate, the next 'Poof', he's gone. A retired spy who left the service in disgrace and who also happens to be a friend of the Phillips' family, Peter Marlow, is engaged to track him down per order of the Prime Minister. Complications almost immediately ensue as another faction within the spy service doesn't want Lindsay found. Further complexity is added to the mix as Peter happens to have had a relationship in the past with Phillips' daughter, which is only the tip of the iceberg of the screwed up nature of the Phillips family situation. As Marlow begins his investigation, questions pop up on every page and from every source. Did Lindsay leave voluntarily or was he kidnapped? If kidnapped, where is he being held, or was he executed? If he left on his own, why did he and where did he go? Was he a Russian agent and did he head back to Moscow to join Philby et. al.? Did the Croats (who had a long held vendetta against him for something he did to one of their leaders) grab him? Why was his own service so conflicted about finding him? Many, many more questions surface as Marlow reaches back into Lindsay's past to try to make some sense out of his disappearance. I'd like to say that by the end of this long story all open issues were resolved and there was a nice tidy ending, but that wasn't the case at all.

As some of us remember, the 1970s were analog days when it was pretty easy to disappear without a trace. Marlow didn't have much to work with, as the digital tracks we're now so familiar with were nonexistent. Many of the folks he talked to in his efforts to learn more about Lindsay's past were spies and therefore predisposed to lie, the situation with Lindsay's daughter and wife blew hot and cold and ranged from helpful to obfuscatory, and he was working without official support. Eventually, enough circumstantial evidence is put together to paint a somewhat sure picture of who Lindsay was and who he was working for, but a surprise conclusion threw a big sweeping curveball at us and, truth be told, I'm now not entirely sure.

It's always interesting to me to read spy novels set in this era, when tech wasn't as critical as it is now and the world was still divided into Communist and free countries. The Oxford Gambit was long and tended to drag, mostly due to the complications of the Phillips family relationships and Marlow's tendency to be overly thorough in his approach. The writing was solid but the characters, especially Phillips' daughter and wife, were somewhat annoying in their moodiness and overall behavior. All-in-all, a decent spy novel that's a bit long, set in a colorful time, and lacks a conclusive conclusion.

[Tom]

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[Gayle Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a long and torturous Journey to a fairly unsatisfactory end. I hung in there until the end because I'm stubborn that way. I will say this, the author kept me guessing every step of the way.