Red Crystal

by Clare Francis

The gripping Cold War thriller from international bestselling author Clare FrancisThe demonstrations, strikes, and student uprisings that punctuated Paris during the late 1960s only served to hide a more devious presence lurking on European soil. A dangerous terror group took root amidst the Paris barricades, a well-trained group of assassins and spies known as the Crystal Faction. Trained in Italy and funded by Moscow, these Cold War killers have made their way to England, and Nick Ryder of Special Branch feels alone in identifying and infiltrating the sleeper cell. This thriller of espionage and murder runs a fast pace as Ryder works diligently, despite resistance from his superiors and a complete lack of cooperation from MI5, to track down the terrorists before they can strike again.

Genres: Espionage, Collections

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Clare Francis's first novel; Night Sky was published in 1983 to international success. It went to number one in the Sunday Times bestseller list, and spent six weeks in the New York Times top 10.

Three more thrillers followed, Red Crystal (1985), Wolf Winter (1987) and Requiem (1991), which was published in the U.S. as The Killing Winds. Her first crime novel, Deceit was published in 1993, and dramatised for television in 2000. Four other highly successful crime novels have followed, and a highly acclaimed literary novel, Homeland. Her latest crime novel Unforgotten has just been published. Her books have been translated into 20 languages and published in over 30 countries.

Clare was born in Thames Ditton, Surrey, the younger of two sisters. Christmas holidays were spent with her grandparents in a remote corner of the Yorkshire Dales where she developed the love of landscape that is a feature of so much of her fiction. Summer holidays were spent on the Isle of Wight, where she learnt to sail at the age of nine.

After five years at the Royal Ballet School she went to an A-level crammer in Oxford (where she appeared in the university revue Keep This to Yourself), then to University College London, where she obtained a degree in Economics. She worked in marketing for three years before taking a year out to travel and discover what she really wanted to do.

What began as a personal odyssey turned into what she terms her 'unplanned' five-year career in sailing. The odyssey was an unsponsored and unsung solo voyage across the Atlantic, during which she read, listened to music and tried her hand at writing. Soon after, Clare was offered sponsorship to take part in the Round Britain Race with Eve Bonham. This was followed by the Azores and Back Singlehanded Race, the Observer Singlehanded Transatlantic Race, and, with a crew of eleven, the Whitbread Round the World Race. It was after writing three works of non-fiction about her adventures, Come Hell or High Water (1977), Come Wind or Weather (1978), and The Commanding Sea (1981) that Clare took the leap into fiction.

In 1977 she married Jaques Redon with whom she had a son, Tom, in 1978.

She is an MBE, a Fellow of University College London, and an Honorary Fellow of UMIST. She has served as Chairman of the Society of Authors (1997-99) and Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Public Lending Right (2000-03).

For the past twenty years she has been commited to the charity Action for ME, of which she is President, a trustee and member of the Council of Management. She herself has had ME (also known as Post Viral Fatigue Syndrome or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) for many years.

Clare Francis lives in London and the Isle of Wight, and loves opera and walking.

Reviews

[Dillwynia Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although a thriller, and a work of fiction, it is interesting to compare the anarchy groups that formed in the 60s to 80s, and the ones we have today; and to compare the vox populi view of these groups between these two time periods. Now, we vilify the religious radicals and have very harsh penalties and expect human rights to be forfeit. Then: the police may have been more brutal in physically handling the radicals, there wasn’t the same baying for blood from the public. Could it have been that our anarchists then where from within, rather than the perceived view that they are foreigners infiltrating daily life?

The basic premise of the novel is a radicalised woman comes back home to England, and ramps up the violence, confounding the authorities. It’s easy to imagine – what you see on the streets of Paris is not likely to happen in cozy England, and the police force can easily dampen and suppress any attempts. Of course, both within Special Branch of Scotland Yard, and MI5 & MI6 are very vigilant, but there are cracks that are easily exploited. Our villain exploits these cleverly and it is fun and thrilling to read her plans to thwart the British establishment.

The ideas are cleverly thought out and are plausible right up to the end. I loved the inside knowledge used for the bank heist, and the slow fuse tension build up with the explosives knowledge. It was exciting when our two protagonists meet – they are ignorant of each other, but you the reader aren’t. It made for gripping reading.

There are no punches pulled in this book – people, characters that you may or may not like – are killed. It isn’t gratuitously violent, but when you take the path of violence to get your message across, there are casualties of both the innocent and complicit along the way.

There are only two small gripes – I wasn’t totally happy with the conclusion of the novel. This was never going to be easy for our writer, as it is so easy to get it hopelessly wrong ie: a big blockbuster Hollywood ending with lots of bangs (which would have been silly) or a bit of a fizzer. The other was the title. Red Crystal implies Soviet intervention and although they are hinted at, they aren’t really that much involved and it felt more like a publisher’s marketing ploy; the title is just plain wrong.

[sergevernaillen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dit was een verrassing. Een boek dat ik ooit eens bij mijn vader heb mee gegrist, dat jàààren in mijn kast is blijven liggen en waar ik zonder veel verwachtingen aan begonnen ben.

Maar zie: het blijkt een reuze meevaller te zijn.

Alles speelt zich af in 1968 en 1969, tegen de achtergrond van de linkse studentenprotesten over heel Europa. Terwijl de meeste van die protesten relatief onschuldig zijn (de occasionele gooi met bakstenen niet te na gelaten) rijpt bij één meisje, Gabriele, het plan om het harder te spelen. En dat resulteert uiteindelijk in bomaanslagen, moorden en gijzeling. We volgen verschillende personages. De twee hoofdpersonages zijn Gabriele en de undercoveragent Nick, die vanuit de zoektocht naar de opvallendste protagonisten bij de studentenprotesten langzaam aan op het spoor Gabriele komt. Maar ook andere personages worden op de voorgrond geplaatst. Zo zijn er Victoria, een ietwat naïeve rijkeluisdochter en would-be hippie, en Henry, procureur-generaal. Deze laatste twee komen heel het boek aan bod maar pas bij het orgelpunt wordt duidelijk waarom ze in dit verhaal betrokken zijn.

Francis bouwt het verhaal rustig op maar het is niet dat het traag vooruit gaat. Ze bouwt voldoende cliffhangers in om steeds maar verder te willen lezen. Als lezer weet je wel ongeveer waar het gaat uitmonden (damn you achterflapteksten) maar Francis vertelt het op zo’n manier dat je toch telkens een verrassing tegenkomt. De spanning wordt zorgvuldig opgebouwd en over de personages komen we net genoeg te weten om het verhaal geloofwaardig te maken.

Alles is in de derde persoon geschreven. Maar in opeenvolgende relatief korte stukjes waarbij telkens een ander personage op de voorgrond staat. Dat zorgt er voor dat ze die cliffhangers ingenieus kan verweven en dat de leesnelheid er in blijft.

[Jill Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those books that is hard to put down. It takes a bit of getting into, as several different characters are introduced in each new chapter at the beginning, and you can't see how they are connected. But eventually their paths cross as the story develops. It is set mainly in 1960s England, with brief interludes in Paris and Italy. The main character, Gabriele, is a socialist activist, and as she experiences the thrill of taking part in a violent demonstration in Paris, she finds she enjoys the fighting against the police and the government. When she finally returns to Britain, she has become an extremist and draws her acquaintances into a new group, the Crystal Faction. Their activities become increasingly violent, with no scruples about killing people who get in the way.
A second character, Nick Ryder, works for Special Branch, which gives the reader an insight into the situation from the police's point of view. With his under cover work, he becomes closely associated with Gabriele, but doesn't realise who she actually is.
The 3rd main character is Victoria Danby, a rich girl who drifts through life and, seeking love, gets caught up with the terrorist group, not realising who they really are.
It is a tale of plotting, solving clues, a bit of romance, and a whole lot of tension. A good read!

[Vera Saunders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Red Crystal (1985) This clever writer wrote this decades ago. And what is plain to us who are aware of human behaviour, can see the correlation with the same anarchistic indulgence of today. The responses in our present day are very different as litigation is the uppermost fear in the authorities of the day. In fact, there is less objectivity, far too much emotional response to everything, but humankind is identified by Clare Francis, perfectly. Although a great deal of naïveté, through the author's eyes.

Reporter huddle at the end: "They just want some raw emotion for the front page"

[Ana Martos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clare Francis nos brinda una novela negra muy interesante contada de forma inteligente. Clare Francis sabe escribir y sabe también mantener un escenario de intriga permanente.

Publicada en 1986, hace ya 38 años, es éste un libro que sigue estando de plena actualidad.

Gran Bretaña: una banda terrorista, servicios secretos, organizaciones que actúan como pantalla, historias familiares, personajes con caracteres bien forjados y un ritmo narrativo que jamás decae, son la base de esta espléndida novela.🕷

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s a quick read. The story is fast paced and interesting, to a point, but it’s not very believable. The characterization of the main protagonist is overblown in my opinion; it just didn’t seem realistic. For a book that has already been published, there are a lot of typos, which left me with the impression that the quality of the final version was mediocre.

[María Sánchez Cuenca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trepidante y muy interesante

[Samantha Richardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this story as it was quite the page turner but really disliked the ending. For feminist writing, I felt the fate of the women characters was rather uninspired.

[Pippa · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I expected a very good read. There is a real humanity in her books, and, unlike Goddard in 'Caught in the Light' she does not avoid difficult encounters. You feel she really does care about her characters. The ending was appropriate. Overall well-written and absolutely un-put-down-able!

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tale of the student uprisings of the late 60s. Easy read.

[Bookish Enchantment (Katherine Quirke) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this many many year ago. I want to read again because even today snippets of this book come back to me. Very poignant in parts. Certainly very compelling.

[Lynn]

Took a while to get into, but really good before it was over!

[Iain Hudson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good Clare Francis novel. It's refreshing to read a well-written book about undercover work which can convey the relatively technology free are of the 1960's and still remain interesting.

[Meinwen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed plot but characters too remote.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perfectly satisfying beach read, with a bit of history and nostalgia to boot!