Spy’s Honour

Honour #1

by Gavin Lyall

Ireland, France, Germany and Hungary comprise the vividly rendered principal locales in this episodic, adventure-filled yarn about the early days of the British Secret Service. In 1912, a nearly bankrupt British officer, Matthew Ranklin, is reduced to being a mercenary in the Greek army and subsequently dragooned into the employ of a Bureau whose existence no one will acknowledge. Dispatched to capture an Irish anarchist, he joins forces with the spirited Conall O'Gilroy, when O'Gilroy decides to switch sides from the Irish nationalists to the British Empire after inadvertently killing a mate. In Paris the pair becomes a trio, as "American enchantress" Corinna Finn steps in when they run afoul of a French Royalist. Subsequent triumphs occur at an annual regatta in Kiel, Germany, and in Hungary, where they foil a plot involving the Archduke Ferdinand (thinking they have staved off the threat of world war). An assumed identity by Ranklin adds delightful complications, while lively dialogue and plotting in the best espionage tradition keep events moving briskly. Evocative period details increase the book's charm, as does Lyall's subtle underscoring of the question implicit in his title-in the world of a spy, exactly what is honor?

Genres: Espionage, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Adventure

382 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Gavin was born and educated in Birmingham. For two years he served as a RAF pilot before going up to Cambridge, where he edited Varsity, the university newspaper. After working for Picture Post, the Sunday Graphic and the BBC, he began his first novel, The Wrong Side of the Sky, published in 1961. After four years as Air Correspondent to the Sunday Times, he resigned to write books full time. He was married to the well-known journalist Katherine Whitehorn and they lived in London with their children.

Lyall won the British Crime Writers' Association's Silver Dagger award in both 1964 and 1965. In 1966-67 he was Chairman of the British Crime Writers Association. He was not a prolific author, attributing his slow pace to obsession with technical accuracy. According to a British newspaper, “he spent many nights in his kitchen at Primrose Hill, north London, experimenting to see if one could, in fact, cast bullets from lead melted in a saucepan, or whether the muzzle flash of a revolver fired across a saucer of petrol really would ignite a fire”.

He eventually published the results of his research in a series of pamphlets for the Crime Writers' Association in the 1970s. Lyall signed a contract in 1964 by the investments group Booker similar to one they had signed with Ian Fleming. In return for a lump payment of £25,000 and an annual salary, they and Lyall subsequently split his royalties, 51-49.

Up to the publication in 1975 of Judas Country, Lyall's work falls into two groups. The aviation thrillers (The Wrong Side Of The Sky, The Most Dangerous Game, Shooting Script, and Judas Country), and what might be called "Euro-thrillers" revolving around international crime in Europe (Midnight Plus One, Venus With Pistol, and Blame The Dead).

All these books were written in the first person, with a sardonic style reminiscent of the "hard-boiled private-eye" genre. Despite the commercial success of his work, Lyall began to feel that he was falling into a predictable pattern, and abandoned both his earlier genres, and the first-person narrative, for his “Harry Maxim" series of espionage thrillers beginning with The Secret Servant published in 1980. This book, originally developed for a proposed BBC TV Series, featured Major Harry Maxim, an SAS officer assigned as a security adviser to 10 Downing Street, and was followed by three sequels with the same central cast of characters.

In the 1990s Lyall changed literary direction once again, and wrote four semi-historical thrillers about the fledgling British secret service in the years leading up to World War I.

Gavin Lyall died of cancer in 2003.

Reviews

[Sid Nuncius · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the start of Gavin Lyall's Ranklin series which sees Ranklin at the very birth of the British Secret Service in 1912 as the First World War looms. It's well written and the political background is very well researched and painted, but I found it rather unsatisfying overall.

The book is a series of slightly disjointed episodes in Ranklin's career as it begins and he becomes a more experienced agent. There is a bit of a Bulldog Drummond feel to it – no doubt deliberate – which doesn't quite work for me. Although Ranklin is a far more thoughtful character than the gung-ho literary heroes of the time, there isn't a lot of subtlety (or plausibility at times) about the plots, so it had a slightly cartoonish feel to me much of the time.

Spy's Honour is readable enough because Lyall was a good writer and I'm glad to have had the opportunity to try it, but I won't be bothering with any more in the series.

(My thanks to Ipso Books for an ARC via NetGalley.)

[Judi Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is set just before WWI. After spying was called 'The Great Game' (and largely took place near Russia) and before it became a recognised career path for 007. Those involved have stumbled into it, often under a cloud or directly from prison. Nevertheless, as with thieves so with spies - there is honour among them. They do their best to protect and serve without getting themselves shot or jailed in the process.

I understand much better now what the origins of the Great War really were because of this book. And my sincere thanks to Gavin Lyall for that. It's all about those pesky Balkans, and their allegiances, and their enemies, and the way everybody changes chairs each time the music stops.

Lyall's preferred subject matter lost relevance (as for Carre) when the Cold War ended. All credit to him for casting about for a new theme and preparing these three late books in such an entertaining and informative way. Sadly there won't be any more as Lyall died in 2003.

[Book Time with Elvis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jolly good fun

I enjoyed this book immensely, entertaining and funny with some intriguing plots set against real historical background. The main characters are fun and likeable while the villains are comic bookish but I like that in this type of novel in a more modern version of Buchan's Hannay stories. If you like them then this is highly recommended.

[Pers · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh dear. This author so wanted to be Erskine Childers and write another 'Riddle of the Sands', but Lyall was far from being a Childers.

This book's narrative is too slow-paced for a story that purports to be a thriller, and too long by about 1/3. To make matters worse, the characters were flat - Corinna, the American who gets dragged into the spying by Ranklin, is the only character who seems vaguely believable to me - and barely that. Ranklin himself is a noble but impoverished gentleman soldier who gets coerced into spying for the pre-War precursor of MI6 with barely any training or backup, and O'Gilroy is a caricature of the stereotypical Angry Irishman with little more colour than Ranklin.

I fell asleep reading this more than once - which shows just how bored I was.

I received an e-ARC of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

[Vanessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting beginning quickly devolves into a stuffy, incomprehensible mess - an especially long chapter in a French chateau is particularly rough (I spent a lot of time pursing my lips and sighing) . The premise is strong, however, and a generous reader could forgive a lot of the missteps as it is clear the author did the research. The writing seems very true to period as well, which is a pro or a con depending on your fondness for pre-WWI fiction. Something is just off with this like a shirt that's been buttoned incorrectly - it'll cover you but it'll look weird while doing so.

I received an ecopy from the publishers and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Mike Blake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Find


Perhaps not as tense as other Lyalls, more overt humour though still tongue in cheek, but rattling good yarns. I'll try another for sure if only to see how the Irishman gets on

[Andréa]

Note: I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher.

[John Pelham · Rating 5 out of 5]

A “Jolly Good” read - when spies were “gentlemen”!

Entertaining and fun to read. A great antidote to the gormless gore of the modern sour genre. Next one now.

[Mike Ford · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disjointed read very poor book will not be following up the series

[Paul R Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A diamo d hidden in plain sight

This is splendid stuff: far more convincing than poor old Childers' Riddle of the Sands. Why has it languished out of sight all thos time?

[Lesley]

I liked the idea - Edwardian Secret Service, no job for a gentleman so they have to inveigle reluctant agents - and it's nicely done for period and so forth without being plonkingly 'look at my research', but so far it's episodic and a bit slow, so I'm putting it on hiatus. Might be a good plane read.

[Divad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lyall's use of written English is as good as any author I have read