SCORPIOUS - John Gardner

Another 007 adventure penned by John Gardner and unfortunately not one of the best.

Bond's telephone number is found on the body of a drowned female and this leads to his involvement in a religious sect wanting to destroy society. Typical Bond scenario but lacking the usual style.

Plot wise its threadbare with so much non- Bond like behaviour I wondered whether Gardner had sub-contracted this story out.

All the usual characters are here but they are all on their last legs and I believe there was only another 2 or 3 of these before they were retired.

Several of his earlier Bond's weren't too bad but even a fan like me struggled with this, it was pretty much rubbish.

SPYCATCHER - Peter Wright

Subtitled "The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer".

Peter Wright spent twenty years as a MI5 Intelligence Officer,from the mid 1950's until 1975. He started as MI5's first scientific officer, his background being in radio.

He spent years bugging embassies and offices across Britain and various other countries.

The first part of the book relates to these early adventures, great fun and we see the innovations that were made in electronic intelligence gathering. More Marconi than James Bond.

The latter part relates to is attempts to gather the evidence to have former MI5 boss, Roger Hollis unmasked as a spy.

Wright does become a wee fixated with this but the evidence was such that eventually Hollis was interviewed, although there was no admission and he continued into his retirement. Wright is correct when he states that with spies you either catch them with physical evidence or they admit it, there is nothing in between.

What is apparent in this memoir is just how appallingly slack vetting procedures were for intelligence operatives, just a joke. He was asked 7 questions including..ever been queer by any chance?..... It is no wonder, Philby,McLean etc were able to spy for years and cause huge loss of life. The Philby situation was particularly bad as it was apparent he was a spy but nothing was done.

This is a great read. The conclusion I've drawn over the attempts to stop it being published in 1987 was not because Wright was exposing operational matters but rather he was exposing the gross incompetence of the people running the intelligence departments.

Recommended for anyone interested in the Cold War or the spy genre. Reading this you realise how good and accurate Le Carre is with his fiction.

THE TWENTIETH DAY OF JANUARY - Ted Allbeury

Imagine that during the cold war the Russians through sleeper agents, financing and buying influence managed to get a President of the United States elected and therefore bringing about the downfall of the West.

This is the basis of what is a really exciting spy novel. The plot sounds far fetched but its not unfeasible when read. Everthing is for sale, so why not the position of the most powerful man on earth.

Allbuery's hero's are much more physical than those of le Carre when solving problems but this is still intelligently put together.

The title has nothing to do with the story but rather the date U.S Presidents are sworn into office.

A great Christmas read or any time read actually.

OUR KIND OF TRAITOR - John le Carre

le Carre is back, I was really worried after his last novel 'A Most Wanted Man" that the master had lost it, but he hasn't and this latest work proves it.

We have a young British couple on holiday in the West Indies who meet up with a Russian gangster and after a game of tennis things rapidly get complicated.

It leads from this meeting to working for MI 6 and traveling across Europe until the rather sad ending.

Nobody can build tension with two men sitting across a table talking to each other like le Carre.

The only complaint is that we never really figure out who the main character is as feature characters seem to drift in and out- but this is only a small fault.

This keeps you guessing and is great entertainment, its not a 'Smiley" but its very, very good and I hope he keeps churning them out if he can keep up this quality.

Nice one Mr. Cornwell.