What do you think?
Taking Liberty
What is the connection between the Romanoff crown jewels and the Statue of Liberty?
The answer is international dynamite.
Born in desperate love and fiery revolution a century ago, from the glittering decadence of the Czarist court, bursts a legacy of unbelievable wealth that pits the CIA against the KGB in twisted intrigue. The battleground stretches from the elegant boulevards of Paris to the sun-drenched Cote d'Azur to America's shining symbol of freedom over the black waters of New York harbor.
And for a disillusioned career spy, a ruthless professional killer, and a beautiful Sorbonne professor, the prize is one of the most dazzling and explosive secrets in history.
The answer is international dynamite.
Born in desperate love and fiery revolution a century ago, from the glittering decadence of the Czarist court, bursts a legacy of unbelievable wealth that pits the CIA against the KGB in twisted intrigue. The battleground stretches from the elegant boulevards of Paris to the sun-drenched Cote d'Azur to America's shining symbol of freedom over the black waters of New York harbor.
And for a disillusioned career spy, a ruthless professional killer, and a beautiful Sorbonne professor, the prize is one of the most dazzling and explosive secrets in history.
482 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 1, 1981
About the author
Lawrence Dunning
10 books4 followersLawrence Dunning has published many novels and short stories during a long career of writing fiction. The novels include Neutron Two Is Critical, Fallout!, Keller’s Bomb, and Taking Liberty, which interested a Hollywood film agency after being reviewed in Publishers Weekly. He also has a new book of his collected short stories titled Rondo and Fugue for Two Pianos. He has published some 30 short stories in literary journals. The stories have won three Colorado Authors’ League awards, and two of his stories were named in the annual Best American Short Stories list of the 100 best stories. He has worked for the Dutch government, a petroleum publication, and the U.S. Department of Defense. He lives in Colorado.
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
February 17, 2021
Dunning's book is the story of Martin Toberts, a man more closely wed to the CIA than to his wife. Now middle-aged, he ostensibly works for the US Embassy in France, doing perfectly ordinary diplomatic things in his perfectly ordinary diplomatic office, drinking the horrible coffee brewed for him by his perfectly ordinary diplomatic secretary, and occasionally appearing at perfectly ordinary diplomatic functions, where he exchanges perfectly ordinary diplomatic words with other perfectly ordinary diplomats, all of whom are more or less engaged in rampant espionage both with and against each other.
His life no more resembles that of James Bond than the average Green Beret's life resembles that of Rambo. At forty-five, having fallen out of love with his alcoholic wife, tired of the occasional violence life throws his way, and seeing the world starting to leave him behind, Toberts wonders if perhaps it isn't time to cash in his chips and do something else with the time left to him on this planet.
Then the CIA learns of a clandestine Russian project, code-named Lamplighter, and Toberts' life is turned upside down. Partnered with a sociopathic agent named Pell Bruckner sent over from the States under the cover of being a foreign correspondent, Toberts finds himself thrust first into a violent struggle with the KGB, and second into the life of Solange Cordier, a young professor at the Sorbonne whose great-grandfather was a party to one of the greatest heists in Russian history, but who left behind clues to the whereabouts of a priceless treasure long thought lost.
* * * * *
I'm not sure what I expected when I decided to read Taking Liberty, originally published in 1981 when I would have been all of three years old, but it's not at all what I found after I'd closed the covers.
See, I have this terrible fault as a reader.
I'll see something that appears not to have been in print for 30-ish years, check it out on Goodreads, discover it has no reviews, and that, more than anything, will make me want to read it. Does this curiosity not kill anybody else? Thus, when I saw a collection of spy novels and techno-thrillers, all from roughly around the time I was born, and noticed just how few of them had any actual reviews attached, I knew I had to act. And Taking Liberty, with its absurd premise that millions of dollars' worth of Russian treasure had secretly been ensconced in the Statue of Liberty before it was erected over a century ago, seemed like the perfect place to start.
But again, whatever I was expecting from Taking Liberty is not at all what I received. The book starts out like most spy novels, with an exchange of information, a smattering of characters, and, of course, forced anal intercourse by page 55.
Oh, do I have your attention now?
Good. Because despite this not being a horror novel, about fifty more pages in, we get the kind of interrogation scene you would associate with a Saw film:
Taking Liberty isn't a horror novel, and Dunning doesn't focus on the act so much as the information the dick lift provides before it kills the unfortunate recipient of said treatment, but still...! The rest of the scene plays out exactly as you might suspect, made all the more laughably awful by Toberts and Bruckner's Weekend At Bernie's-esque disposal of the dead man by chucking the corpse in front of an on-coming subway train. But a little over 100 pages in, we've learned exactly what we're in for should we choose to continue.
What I found upon continuing was a delightfully absurd idea, cobbled together from enough disparate elements to seem plausible when properly assembled, along with a few reversals of fortune, some more killings (one of which I was absolutely not expecting), some more sexual interludes, travel all across Europe and the US, and a finale which is slightly spoiled by not just the book's title, but also the cover artwork. I can't complain too much though: it's nice to see a cover artist who appears to have actually read the book they were being paid to illustrate.
Thrillers from the late 70's and early 80's intrigue me because while I was alive at the time of their publication, I have absolutely no adult frame of reference for what all was going on in the world while I was busy trying to get through elementary school. Thus, there is no lens through which I can filter Dunning's tale in search of bullshit. It was a fun read, an enjoyable read, though one I see no reason to read a second time, and I'd likely pick up another of his books in the future if one crossed my path. So here you go, Mr. Dunning. Taking Liberty earned this four stars and review honestly. If it inspires others to give it a go, then my work here is finished.
His life no more resembles that of James Bond than the average Green Beret's life resembles that of Rambo. At forty-five, having fallen out of love with his alcoholic wife, tired of the occasional violence life throws his way, and seeing the world starting to leave him behind, Toberts wonders if perhaps it isn't time to cash in his chips and do something else with the time left to him on this planet.
Then the CIA learns of a clandestine Russian project, code-named Lamplighter, and Toberts' life is turned upside down. Partnered with a sociopathic agent named Pell Bruckner sent over from the States under the cover of being a foreign correspondent, Toberts finds himself thrust first into a violent struggle with the KGB, and second into the life of Solange Cordier, a young professor at the Sorbonne whose great-grandfather was a party to one of the greatest heists in Russian history, but who left behind clues to the whereabouts of a priceless treasure long thought lost.
* * * * *
I'm not sure what I expected when I decided to read Taking Liberty, originally published in 1981 when I would have been all of three years old, but it's not at all what I found after I'd closed the covers.
See, I have this terrible fault as a reader.
I'll see something that appears not to have been in print for 30-ish years, check it out on Goodreads, discover it has no reviews, and that, more than anything, will make me want to read it. Does this curiosity not kill anybody else? Thus, when I saw a collection of spy novels and techno-thrillers, all from roughly around the time I was born, and noticed just how few of them had any actual reviews attached, I knew I had to act. And Taking Liberty, with its absurd premise that millions of dollars' worth of Russian treasure had secretly been ensconced in the Statue of Liberty before it was erected over a century ago, seemed like the perfect place to start.
But again, whatever I was expecting from Taking Liberty is not at all what I received. The book starts out like most spy novels, with an exchange of information, a smattering of characters, and, of course, forced anal intercourse by page 55.
Oh, do I have your attention now?
Good. Because despite this not being a horror novel, about fifty more pages in, we get the kind of interrogation scene you would associate with a Saw film:
"What, exactly, do you have in mind?" Toberts asked him.
"I think we'll do a 'body lift' on Mr. Cassius there--it should make him extremely talkative."
"I'm not familiar with the term."
"You desk types really ought to get out in the field more often," Bruckner scoffed. "Help you keep up with the latest techniques. All you need is a rope and a place to hang it. Of course, there are refinements--have you ever seen a man hoisted by his genitals?"
Taking Liberty isn't a horror novel, and Dunning doesn't focus on the act so much as the information the dick lift provides before it kills the unfortunate recipient of said treatment, but still...! The rest of the scene plays out exactly as you might suspect, made all the more laughably awful by Toberts and Bruckner's Weekend At Bernie's-esque disposal of the dead man by chucking the corpse in front of an on-coming subway train. But a little over 100 pages in, we've learned exactly what we're in for should we choose to continue.
What I found upon continuing was a delightfully absurd idea, cobbled together from enough disparate elements to seem plausible when properly assembled, along with a few reversals of fortune, some more killings (one of which I was absolutely not expecting), some more sexual interludes, travel all across Europe and the US, and a finale which is slightly spoiled by not just the book's title, but also the cover artwork. I can't complain too much though: it's nice to see a cover artist who appears to have actually read the book they were being paid to illustrate.
Thrillers from the late 70's and early 80's intrigue me because while I was alive at the time of their publication, I have absolutely no adult frame of reference for what all was going on in the world while I was busy trying to get through elementary school. Thus, there is no lens through which I can filter Dunning's tale in search of bullshit. It was a fun read, an enjoyable read, though one I see no reason to read a second time, and I'd likely pick up another of his books in the future if one crossed my path. So here you go, Mr. Dunning. Taking Liberty earned this four stars and review honestly. If it inspires others to give it a go, then my work here is finished.
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