One hundred people are killed when a bomb explodes on the London
Underground and detective Frank Pagan is brought back from suspension
to catch the culprit. Although there are not too many other deaths
in this one, the clichés pile up at every turn. Pagan the
recovering alcoholic, who has lost his wife. The wider myth that
people can do their jobs just as well or better after lots of
alcohol. The stupid and overbearing Deputy Commissioner who wants
regular reports. Stagy conversations, that would be silly in reality
(why are they saying this?), to convey information . A powerful,
all-seeing, businessman's organisation, with assassins dogging
its enemies at every step, that would be invincible if real, but
that comes undone for trivial reasons.
Campbell Armstrong is a Scot who lives in Ireland and he seems
to take the ex-pats, remote, slightly unfamiliar, outdated and
even contemptuous view of the old country. It has been quite a
few decades since London was troubled by fog for example. And
why the Americanisms 'apartment' for flat; 'elevator' for lift;
'hooker' for prostitute and 'hood' for bonnet?
Armstrong is a popular thriller writer - his books are well borrowed
at libraries. Hailed on the jacket as 'the spirit of Jig lives
on' - it is a sequel to Jig, a book about an IRA terrorist.
In what way he manages to live on I will leave for the reader
to discover. But it starts annoyingly slowly and it is not until
about page 180 that things really get going. Some of the characters
are obviously drawn from life - Gurenko is a thinly disguised
Boris Yeltsin, one of the terrorists, 'Carlotta', is a female
version of 'Carlos the Jackal' and 'the General' appears to be
based on Markus Wolff of GDR Intelligence. But 'Stasi' is a western
media term - they were actually known as the 'Konsum' or Co-op!
But some of the plot turns on incredible points and unlikely
coincidences. A high class call girl accosts Pagan in the street
to impart some information. She could not meet him formally because
she is being followed. How this is evaded when they do meet is
unclear. The police operation generally seems inauthentic and
the conclusion more unlikely still. But somehow it sells well.
