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The Virgin and the Fool
Ukraine! The name of the country means on the edge! Living there has always been
hard. Now it's highly dangerous too.
When ex-university lecturer Tom Fielding goes on the run with Clive Ponsonby of MI6 - the man who put him in Longfield Open Prison for eight years - he has only hours in which to save several lives.
Ponsonby's former agent, Nosarenko, is now President of the the Ukraine. He is determined to silence Tom. Why? Because he was the sole witness of a gruesome murder in the 1980s which could destroy his political career.
Clive Ponsonby wants the half-million dollars that went missing during Tom's mission in Russia.
And Tom wants to stay alive long enough to protect the three women in his life - his Russian ex-wife, their daughter Svetlana, and Karen McKenzie, the one person to stand by him when he went to jail.
There is only one thing that will stop the killing. It's a film Tom shot of the murder, hidden somewhere in the centre of Asia with the Virgin of Kazan, the most valuable icon in the world.
If he can get the both the icon and the film safely back to the west in time, Tom will be rich and safe.
If not, he'll be dead...
'The Virgin and the Fool' is a pacy, atmospheric spy story full of passion and intrigue.
It will appeal to fans of Alan Furst, John Le Carre, Robert Harris and Frederick Forsyth.
'A block-buster thriller.' - Tom Kasey, best-selling author of 'Trade-Off'.
'Packs a tremendous punch.' - Robert Foster, best-selling author of 'The Lunar Code'.
Douglas Boyd is a television producer and writer. His best-selling books include 'The Eagle and the Snake' and 'The Truth and the Lies'.
hard. Now it's highly dangerous too.
When ex-university lecturer Tom Fielding goes on the run with Clive Ponsonby of MI6 - the man who put him in Longfield Open Prison for eight years - he has only hours in which to save several lives.
Ponsonby's former agent, Nosarenko, is now President of the the Ukraine. He is determined to silence Tom. Why? Because he was the sole witness of a gruesome murder in the 1980s which could destroy his political career.
Clive Ponsonby wants the half-million dollars that went missing during Tom's mission in Russia.
And Tom wants to stay alive long enough to protect the three women in his life - his Russian ex-wife, their daughter Svetlana, and Karen McKenzie, the one person to stand by him when he went to jail.
There is only one thing that will stop the killing. It's a film Tom shot of the murder, hidden somewhere in the centre of Asia with the Virgin of Kazan, the most valuable icon in the world.
If he can get the both the icon and the film safely back to the west in time, Tom will be rich and safe.
If not, he'll be dead...
'The Virgin and the Fool' is a pacy, atmospheric spy story full of passion and intrigue.
It will appeal to fans of Alan Furst, John Le Carre, Robert Harris and Frederick Forsyth.
'A block-buster thriller.' - Tom Kasey, best-selling author of 'Trade-Off'.
'Packs a tremendous punch.' - Robert Foster, best-selling author of 'The Lunar Code'.
Douglas Boyd is a television producer and writer. His best-selling books include 'The Eagle and the Snake' and 'The Truth and the Lies'.
- GenresFiction
453 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1997
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21 people want to read
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 4, 2014
Tom Fielding is an academic specialising in Russian history. He is recruited by British intelligence to apparently defect to the USSR in order to act as contact for a deeply embedded double agent in the KGB, but there are worries that he has 'gone native'.
Following the stories of several characters and with a timeline that spans from the Russian revolution to the 1990s, this is a big shaggy dog of a novel. Sometimes it's compelling and has you eagerly turning the pages but at others it seems to drag and has you wanting to skim.
Pacing issues aside the plot is good, if a little predictable in places, and the closing chapters have a good deal of contemporary relevance.
Following the stories of several characters and with a timeline that spans from the Russian revolution to the 1990s, this is a big shaggy dog of a novel. Sometimes it's compelling and has you eagerly turning the pages but at others it seems to drag and has you wanting to skim.
Pacing issues aside the plot is good, if a little predictable in places, and the closing chapters have a good deal of contemporary relevance.
Displaying 1 of 1 review