3.5 stars
Having previously read and enjoyed the Canadian political satires, Best Laid Plans and the High Road, by Terry Fallis, I was pleased to see M.P. Angus McLintock return in a humorous spy thriller. Angus is in London with his Chief of Staff, David Addison, to discuss the upcoming G8 summit in Washington. Angus's only role will be in charge of arranging a brief meeting between the Canadian Prime Minister and the Russian President in Ottawa.
While in London, David receives a text from a burner phone advising him to come to a nearby pub at night for important information. He must come alone and tell nobody of this clandestine meeting. Naturally, he immediately tells Angus and takes him along for support. They meet a woman who is not happy with David's arrangement and that he has broken the rules she laid out. She is soon to retire as an M16 agent and has secret information that the English government refused to act upon. She advises them that Chechen separatists plan to assassinate the Russian President while in Ottawa. There is a possibility the Canadian Prime Minister and others will be harmed in the attack. The British government has covered up the plan due to the Russian's involvement with poisonings in England and has no plans to share or publicize the assassination attempt. She insists they never name her as a source as this could lead to her imprisonment.
Meanwhile, there are noisy protests in Ottawa by citizens enraged about the appearance of the new building where the upcoming meeting is to be held. It was designed with a maple leaf theme partly overlooking the Ottawa River. In order to prop it up from tumbling into the river, extensions had to be added to stabilize it. Now it is said to resemble an ugly spider climbing from the water. Angus and David try to warn politicians and security forces about the terrorist plan, but are ignored because they won't disclose their source and from their dislike of Angus. They consider their information to be ridiculous and that it would never happen in Canada.
They enlist help from an old and elderly friend Muriel who lives in a senior residence. They meet Muriel's friend, Vivien, who is physically impaired but has a sharp mind. She was a former member of the RCMP and employed by an intelligence agency and is a newcomer to the residence. Along with the assistance of these two senior women and David's girlfriend, there is a race to stop an attack that the Canadian politicians will not take seriously. They attempt to locate Chechnya sleeper cells around Ottawa and are in a mad, frantic race against time to stop the terrorist plan.
This results in a hilarious, light, madcap spy story and will probably join Angus's previous stories with awards for humour.