The Cooler

Collier Spymasters

by George Markstein

The secret that could only be told as fiction

The Cooler really existed.
It was one of the Intelligence secrets of the Second World War that nobody has ever talked about.
But who were the people in the Cooler?
Why were they sent there?
What happened to them once they were inside?
The Cooler is a work of fiction.
But the secret behind it is true.

George Markstein's novel is about 'Special Operations' in World War II, the stresses and strains upon those who worked in it, and the paradox that the very qualities, sometimes ugly, that made an operator a good one, might suddenly turn him into a danger to the whole network...That paradox comes home to the Cooler.
Suddenly - the fate of the whole war lay in the place that nobody knew about...except those who were there, and those who had put them there.
Tense, fast moving, controlled, this is a novel that will grip you from the first page to the last and establish George Markstein as a master of the story-teller's craft.

Genres: Thriller, Suspense, Espionage, Historical Fiction, Fiction

255 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

George Markstein (29 August 1929 – 15 January 1987) was a German-born British journalist and subsequent writer of thrillers and teleplays.

Markstein was a military correspondence with the U.S. Forces in Europe after World War II, and become hooked on the study of espionage. He turned from documentary writing for television to drama, created the controversial The Prisoner series, and was the script editor (and co-writer of "Arrival," the first episode) of the series briefly appearing in its title sequence.

Markstein also wrote for or story-edited other television series, specialising in espionage stories, such as Danger Man, Callan, and Armchair Theatre, and jointly ran a successful literary agency for screenwriters.

He was co-winner of the British Writers Guild Award for the Best Original Screenplay for the feature film Robbery in 1967, and was Executive Story Editor for Thames Television during the 1970s.

Following a long illness, Markstein died of kidney failure in 1987.

Reviews

[Nigeyb · Rating 3 out of 5]

George Markstein was co-creator of The Prisoner, the cult TV series, and it was this that drew me to The Cooler (1974) having been notified of a new short run 50th Anniversary reprint on the always excellent Backlisted Podcast. Search for the Plumeria Pictures website to grab yourself a copy.

The Cooler is set in World War 2 and most of the action takes place in London. The Cooler itself is a remote Scottish manor house where trained British agents who have exhibited some form of instability and can no longer be trusted, but who also know sensitive information, are kept in a resort-like atmosphere. Needless to say the concept of the cooler is apparently rooted in fact and also inspired The Village that so famously featured in The Prisoner TV series.

This book is a compelling page-turner set during the lead up to D-Day. The characters and their heightened sense of paranoia make for an interesting read. The ending felt a bit rushed and the denouement is pretty obvious well before the conclusion however that does not detract from a very solid and enjoyable WW2 espionage yarn.

3/5

[Graham Dragon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise of this novel, set during the second world war, is that there is a facility where spies who cannot be sent on an operation (because of character defects or other factors of unsuitability) are indefinitely held incommunicado. The author, George Markstein, claims the basis of his novel is true even though the story within it is not.

I found it a gripping thriller. At times I was unable to put the book down as I wanted to see what happened next. Even though it was set in 1944 and written in 1974 it felt fresh and undated.

Many of the elements of this thriller ARE true. Secret spy organisations such as SOE and ISRB. The introduction of “personal messages” by the BBC to provide agents on the continent with credibility and to send instructions to resistance groups. The secret facility of Inverlair Lodge (called Inverloch in the novel) used by ISRB as a “Special Workshop School” to hide away agents in possession of classified information. The release of D-Day secrets in Daily Telegraph crossword puzzles, including the code names of the landing beaches, before D-Day was launched.

George Markstein was well placed to write such a novel. He was rumoured to have worked for British Intelligence, although this rumour has never been confirmed. The 1960’s cult series “The Prisoner” was co-created by George Markstein, who also contributed to “Danger Man” and “Callan”.

If you are looking for nail-biting thrills mixed with historical factual information you should enjoy “The Cooler”.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Markstein, co-creator of The Prisoner, walked away from that TV show when he didn’t like the direction it was taking. He then started publishing thrillers, the first of which, the 1944 set The Cooler, features an establishment for spies who are compromised, who know too much and need to be kept on ice….

A cool, efficient, immensely readable thriller, The Cooler is set in the weeks before D-Day. Captain Loach finds his mission cancelled when a spy ring in France collapses. At a loose end and with a viscous sadistic streak when it comes to women, he goes too far and his superiors have no choice but to send him to the titular Cooler, Inverloch in the wilds of Scotland.

Meanwhile a female spy, Clare, training to be dropped into occupied France, goes too far and injures a fellow trainee, thus she is also sent to Inverloch. And all the while a German spy is going about his business, gathering what information he can on Allied invasion plans.

And it seems someone has penetrated The Cooler and is sending messages….

Told in short sharp chapters, this is the very definition of a page turner. There’s no glamour here, just a tense wartime thriller, excellently written and executed. The reveal is well handled and it’s a race against time to save the invasion and identify the traitor. I’ll be very interested to see what else Markstein has to offer.

[Susan_MG · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whew! I did it, finished The Cooler. The author did an excellent job developing interesting characters and presenting them to the reader. I estimate that three quarters of the book is description of the characters and their preliminary activities prior to the actual plot being revealed. By not getting into the plot until late the big reveal at the end seemed rushed. Although I didn’t lose interest, because the characters are quite interesting, but I did get bored and became Impatient about halfway to know where the story was going. I took a month plus break and finally picked it up again.
This is a classic spy novel. It’s not a thriller but the reader is teased with the question of “who.” The plot is unique enough that I would recommend it to spy novel fans.

[Bill FromPA · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I hadn't known Markstein as the creator of The Prisoner, I might not have noticed the parallels between the Village and the Cooler, an isolated manor house where, during WWII, British agents with sensitive knowledge who have exhibited mental instability are kept in a resort-like atmosphere.

This is a well constructed page-turner set in Britain during the months before D-Day. Markstein spends a lot of time developing the characters and their situations before springing his mystery plot on the reader during the last fifth of the novel.

Note: According to Official Prisoner Companion (131), a place like the Cooler did exist and Markstein learned about it as a journalist during WWII.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heard about this one on a BBC podcast called _Backlisted_ (highly recommended, by the way). It's a novel by the guy who helped write _The Prisoner_, and it's similar terrain, more conventionally mined. I read it in two days, and it felt like stumbling on some really solid b & w movie from the 50s. There were a few surprises, but by the second half you knew where it was going--and that was OK. It was still fun to get there.

[Debbi Mack · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best spy novels I've ever read.

And a must-read for fans of the old TV show, The Prisoner! :)

[Bob Box · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read in 1975. Espionage.

[Imation · Rating 2 out of 5]

Novelita de espías y contra espías, sencillita, pero cumple su cometido. Le cuesta mucho entrar para luego resolverse rápidamente. Eso sí, me ha mantenido despistada hasta el final.

[Warwick]

Good story, short, moved well, believable, will read more of this author.

[Bent Andreassen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lest på norsk. 3 eller noe lavere.