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The Madness of July by James Naughtie

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Manda Scott
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The Madness of July by James Naughtie

Post by Manda Scott » Tue January 28th, 2014, 4:44 pm

Most of the authors whose books pass across my desk these days are names I've never heard of. And then there's the one whose voice we wake up to, who brings us the news in that melting-chocolate brogue, with the rolling Rs and the vowels that hark back to the glens. And he hosts the book programme, too, so he knows a thing or two about prose. So when James Naughtie, the presenter of the Today Programme on BBC Radio 4, writes his first novel, you sit up and take notice, and beg a copy from his editor: this job truly has its perks.

THE MADNESS OF JULY is a literate, intelligent spy thriller. The John le Carré in the early days, before he became too big to edit and his plots spread out across too many pages, padded out with great chunks of prose that nobody ever read except the poor benighted proof reader. This is from the time before, when we read The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and knew we were in the hands of someone who'd been there, who knew the fear behind the wall, and the games played in anonymous offices.

Unless Naughtie has a second career as a spy (and, given that his primary charcter is an MP who used to be a spy, and is heading fast back in that direction, nothing is impossible), then he hasn't been there, but he clearly knows the land on which he walks, and takes us there with an assurance that makes it hard to believe this is a first work of fiction.

So to the plot: Will Flemyng used to be a spy and is now an MP in the governing party. We're never told which of the main two it is - that's completely unimportant. In the grinding heat of July, as parliament heads towards recess and deals are done in committee rooms to get bills passed before the end of term, a body is found. An American body. An American spy's body.

And so all hell breaks loose, but quietly, under the radar, and Will is called in to fire up his old skills and find out why this man died: and why it matters so very much to the Americans that someone they ostensibly don't use any more is dead in unfortunate - and highly suspicious - circumstances.

Will has to engage dormant skills and delve into the murky underworld that we lesser mortals never get to see: the real oil that keeps the wheels of government turning. Along the way, we encounter the important women in his life: his wife and his secretary (this is the 70s, women don't get to be real people, except for the head of the US operation, who is, very wonderfully, a closetted lesbian. I liked her a lot. So let's say, this is the 70s and heterosexual women don't get to be real people). We also encounter his two brothers - one at the family home in Scotland at Altnabuie, and one who has become a naturalised American, taking after their mother. Woven into the main plot is a revelation about their mother's past that serves further to destabilise an already unstable situation.

It's a potentially complex plot, but it's deftly handled and the language, in places, is beautiful: the descriptions of Scotland, the family home, the loch, the dogs, the big, crumbling house (and yes, there's an ormolu clock, an essential set-piece for all le Carré fans: he has one in every book) - are rich and glorious. London by contrast, is... a contrast: stifling and urban and full of the swirling vanities and pride and downright nastiness of Westminster are entirely plausible. The truly depressing thing is that one is left feeling that this is exactly how the country is run: the things we see are the unimportant non-entities that we are allowed to see and the rest runs on the Boys' rules made by the not-terribly emotionally-literate people who inhabit it. Not that the book lacks emotional literacy, far from it, but it's the intelligence of the viewpoints that casts the characters in the sad shade of their own limitations.

So: I am sure this will be a huge hit. It's due out on 27th February and you should order one now. The very good news is that it's the first of a series and there's more to come.
*******************************

Bestselling author of
Boudica: Dreaming. INTO THE FIRE out in June 2015: Forget what you thought you knew, this changes everything.

[url=http:www.mandascott.co.uk]http:www.mandascott.co.uk[/url]

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