It occurs to me that I don’t review enough thrillers around here.
I could either lock myself in islation all day to catch up on books, or dig up some older ones.
But this is an author I don’t think gets enough love, because I barely heard of him when I actively sought his novels.
And so, Keith Thomson’s, Once a Spy.
The Story
Drummond Clarke is a retiree lost in the fog of Alzheimer’s. He opens this book making a pot of chicken and stars soup. Once it is cooked he promptly, for reasons he can’t really remember, pours it into the plant next to the windowsill. The plant is made of plastic.
Across the street, men wonder what happened to the listening device they planted in Drummond’s plastic plant.
His son, Charlie Clarke is a degenerate gambler who prefers not to see his father. But, like clockwork, the day after Christmas, Charlie gets his annual phone call. His father is seen wandering the neighborhood. Charlie hopes that this is the last time he’ll have to deal with his always-distant father. He has plans to seal Drummond away in a nursing home, and use what little cash the retired appliance salesman has to pay off Charlie’s own debt to some unsavory Russian loan sharks.
Charlie has particularly high hopes when Drummond insists that he used to work for the CIA. Obviously, the old man has lost his marbles, and can be put in a home any day now…
Until, that is, Drummond saves Charlie as his house is blown up. Drummond even hotwires several cars as father and son are shot at in a running chase through Brooklyn.
And now, Drummond and Charlie have the unusual experience of father-son bonding while under persistence gunfire. With each new experience, Drummond has lucid moments that keep them alive, and one step ahead of their adversaries.
Now if only Drummond can remember why people are trying to kill him....
Once a Spy is a very well put together thriller that doesn’t slow down until you finish.
The action / espionage sequences so well done it’s hard to describe. No one, be they adversary or protagonist, is stupid. While Drummond is useful in a firefight, the adrenaline can only last so long, and so can the lucidity. It is up to Charlie in these moments, and he’s being graded on a sharp learning curve.
It’s certainly worth the ride.
The Characters
While the fight / chase scenes are intelligent and creative, the real fun of the novel comes in between battles, in the quiet moments while Drummond Clarke is still lucid and remembers everything from his former life as a spy. This is when Charlie learns about his past, from moments as simple as why his father missed his high school graduation (Drummond was off the coast of Saudi Arabia in a wetsuit), to why he wasn’t allowed to go into the local candy store (couldn’t have a young Charlie ruining a covert dead drop, now could they?). The father and son moments are lightly handled, and not hitting the reader over the head with hammer labeled SUBTLETY. Instead of bonding over a camping trip, or fishing, it’s over the body of a newly knocked out assassin.
To Hell with Fast and Furious. This is about family.
The World
This is very much our world. Just the shadowy edges of it.
Politics
Honestly? None.
Content Warning
This part is self-explanatory.
Who is it for?
This is for people who want a new twist on The Bourne Identity—only it’s Alzheimer’s, not amnesia.
Why buy it
It’s better than any of The Bourne Identity movies, and might be better than the original Robert Ludlum novel.