The Enemy Within

Department Z #25

by John Creasey

Espionage classic in the Department Z Series

Paperback

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

AKA Gordon Ashe, M E Cooke, Norman Deane, Robert Caine Frazer, Patrick Gill, Michael Halliday, Charles Hogarth, Brian Hope, Colin Hughes, Kyle Hunt, Margaret Lisle, Abel Mann, Peter Manton, J.J. Marric, Richard Martin, Rodney Mattheson, Anthony Morton, Jeremy York, Henry St. John Cooper and Margaret Cooke.

John Creasey (September 17, 1908 - June 9, 1973) was born in Southfields, Surrey, England and died in New Hall, Bodenham, Salisbury Wiltshire, England. He was the seventh of nine children in a working class home. He became an English author of crime thrillers, published in excess of 600 books under 20+ different pseudonyms. He invented many famous characters who would appear in a whole series of novels. Probably the most famous of these is Gideon of Scotland Yard, the basis for the television program Gideon's Way but others include Department Z, Dr. Palfrey, The Toff, Inspector Roger West, and The Baron (which was also made into a television series). In 1962, Creasey won an Edgar Award for Best Novel, from the Mystery Writers of America, for Gideon's Fire, written under the pen name J. J. Marric. And in 1969 he was given the MWA's highest honor, the Grand Master Award.

Reviews

[ShanDizzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Only one figure loomed in his mind’s eye when he thought about them; that was the little pimp in khaki who, in a hushed but still hearty voice, had told him what had happened to his father. When he had sat there, listening, he could have got up and put his hands round the plump neck and strangled the life out of the man. He’d felt something like that from the time he had been told that his father was dead; he’d felt hatred. But until he had seen the pimp, there had been no flesh and blood to hate; so, his hatred had turned towards ‘them’. Gradually they had grown into his consciousness. He included all politicians and Service officers who had been superior to his father, all who had been responsible for sending his father, by parachute, into Germany. It had gradually turned to hatred of everyone even partly responsible; to hatred of the system. He did not realise that it had turned him into a psychopathic case. He felt normal; except for the one obsession to hurt everyone and every- thing that had been responsible for his great loss, he was normal...Corliss remembered the various stages which had followed. He wasn’t a political fool, but had been attracted by the philosophy and by the actions of the rulers of half the world. He even had the clearsightedness to know that it was a philosophy of hatred; that was why the ideology appealed to him, for it seemed to him a cleansing, virile emotion. He hated those responsible for what he called a crime, and hated the masses of the people with whom he had to live. He hadn’t always felt like that.

"The enemy within is always more dangerous than the enemy outside,” said Loftus—and suddenly, he smiled. “I’m getting prosy! ...We’ve an Intelligence Service with agents who will take any risk, all the time, to make sure that we aren’t beaten by that enemy within. There’s a cock-eyed notion in a lot of people’s minds that we only play at the business. Well, we don’t. There are people several thousand miles away who are really beginning to realise that, now.”

[Linda Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not the usual John Creasey fare where the story centres around brave and dashing young men (and, occasionally, girls) winning out against fearful odds. The protagonist here, Corliss, is a man consumed by hatred who seeks revenge against his country, and in particular his country's secret service, whom he blames for the death of his father during the war. Working for a mysterious group of Russians, Corliss is thrown into the path of Department Z in such a way that they are certain to snap him up as a valuable recruit. This happens as planned and Corliss becomes the enemy within Department Z.

Corliss is a deeply unpleasant individual whose character disintegrates as the book progresses. The twists at the end took me by surprise — I was expecting something to turn things around, but not what actually happened.

Not a bad read, but I don't want to spend any more time in Corliss' company, so I won't be re-reading this one.

[Michael P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Department Z series was tired by the time Creasey wrote his twenty-fifth, but he gave this book a vitality that had long been missing by telling the story from the point of view of an enemy agent who joins Z to destroy it from within. While the survival of the department seems obvious, and so, you would think, is the ending of the book, Creasey has plotted this so cleverly for once, that there are many times the story could have gone one way or another and often the way it goes is unexpected. So, though the ultimate ending is not in doubt, the path to that ending is full of surprises and so is how much damage the mole does or does not do to the Department.

This book is truly fresh and fun despite fighting uphill against its Communist witch hunt tone.