Beyond Recall

by Gerald Seymour

'Seymour produces the most intelligent writing in the thriller genre' Financial Times***He had been to the limit. Then they sent him further.Gary - 'Gaz' - Baldwin is a watcher, not a killer. Operating with a special forces unit deep in Syria, he is to sit in a hide, observe a village, report back and leave.But the appalling atrocity he witnesses will change his life forever.Before long, he is living as a handyman on the Orkney islands, far from Syria, far from the army, not far enough from the memories that have all but destroyed him.'Knacker' is one of the last old-school operators at the modern MI6 fortress on the Thames. He presides over the Round Table, a little group who meet in a pub and yearn for simpler, less bureaucratic times.When news reaches Knacker that the Russian officer responsible for the Syrian incident may be in Murmansk, northern Russia, he sets in motion a plan to kill him. It will involve a sleeper cell, a marksman and other resources - all unlikely to be sanctioned by the MI6 top brass, so it must be done off the books.But first, he will need a sure identification. And for that, he needs a watcher...Full of surprise, suspense and betrayal, Beyond Recall is a searching novel of moral complexity and a story of desperate survival.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, War, Espionage

448 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 9, 2020

About the author

Gerald Seymour (born 25 November 1941 in Guildford, Surrey) is a British writer.

The son of two literary figures, he was educated at Kelly College at Tavistock in Devon and took a BA Hons degree in Modern History at University College London. Initially a journalist, he joined ITN in 1963, covering such topics as the Great Train Robbery, Vietnam, Ireland, the Munich Olympics massacre, Germany's Red Army, Italy's Red Brigades and Palestinian militant groups. His first book, Harry's Game, was published in 1975, and Seymour then became a full-time novelist, living in the West Country. In 1999, he featured in the Oscar-winning television film, One Day in September, which portrayed the Munich Olympics massacre.
Television adaptations have been made of his books Harry's Game, The Glory Boys, The Contract, Red Fox, Field Of Blood, A Line In The Sand and The Waiting Time.

Reviews

[Greville Waterman · Rating 5 out of 5]

How does he do it? Every January without fail Gerald Seymour produces a brilliantly researched, plotted, written and original thriller. He has done it now for over 40 years and he seems to be getting better.

"Beyond Recall" has all the ingredients - a hero battling against all the odds and determined to do the right thing. An evil villain who gets what he deserves , if not quite how was planned. Dastardly senior management undermining the mission in hand.

This is an exhilarating thriller with the perfect ending which really moved me - and there is also a bear!

Don't miss it!

[Karen Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gerald Seymour is not an author you can rush. His stories unwind slowly and if you had to parse the plot it could be summed up in three sentences. He takes those three sentences and spins them into thriller gold.

Highly recommended to those who know his work, perhaps not the ideal starting point for those who don't. As he approaches his 81st birthday, his book-a-year output is startling . . . and the books just keep getting better.

[Chris Sutton · Rating 5 out of 5]

As with all Seymour offerings, the build up / scene setting is long and deeply researched. Such was the rising tension in this book that I was reluctant to pick up the book and read the last four chapters for fear of the dire outcome events were pressaging. So often with this author's stories there is that knowledge in the back of your mind that if not factual it is based on real events and organisations / people and it rarely ends well. The underlying plot in this work was brutal but, for me, had as satisfactory ending as Gerald could possibly allow. Need to read something lighthearted and jolly next!

[Kevin McMahon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Normally I am a big fan of Gerald Seymour but this one was a bit of a struggle. It seemed to me to be interminably long and a bit too much navel gazing/soul searching from our characters.

The book seems to drift along and then a bit of detail and then back to the sedentary plod. Story good, plot good but too long by about 100 pages.

I was engaged with the main character but Knacker et al just annoyed me.

[Kam eghdami · Rating 2 out of 5]

Random thoughts masquerading as a plot.
The book Editor must have been threatened with physical violence were he to insist on paragraphs and chapters.

We are literally in mid-sentence, transported from a Scottish village to a Russian backwater. And then to make sure we are paying attention and again in mid sentence, find ourselves in a London private club. Stopped reading halfway through.

[rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the version of this novel available from Google Books. Let me start therefore with some observations on the physical qualities of that edition.
• There is little evidence of any serious editing
• There are a good number of spelling errors
• The layout is confusing, especially when new sections start without even a line break.
Seymour’s style blends multiple story-lines and brings them together as a novel proceeds. It’s hard to follow when the breaks between story lines happen without any indication.

So Hodder & Stoughton, please take note. This edition is just sloppy.

So having said that, I found “Beyond Recall” a little hard to get into, but it is a great slow burner. The plot develops gradually but becomes one of Seymour’s most thrilling stories. I suspect it will work much better with some decent editing.

As always in Seymour’s novels, his ability to create a sense of place and time is superb. His cynicism about the British Intelligence community – well its management at least – remains sharp. His great admiration for agents put into the field and into great danger remains as strong as ever.

If you’ve enjoyed Seymour’s past novels, you will enjoy this one. Perhaps just wait until some professional editing happens.

[Kedarnath Awati · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extraordinary thriller

A savaging of a Syrian village is the core of a rich and complex narrative. That story is given out in bits, intermittently throughout the course of the book. This is interleaved with the story of how a deniable arm of the British Secret Services extracts a degree of payback for the horrible events that happened on that day in that village...the characters are surprisingly real and the denouement occurs in the wilds of the Kola peninsula where the Dutch explorer William Barents perished with his crew some five hundred or so years ago. The thoroughly believable protagonists include Gary (Gaz), a reconnaissance specialist, two loveable young drug pushers from the town of Murmansk in Russia, a backwoodsman by the name of Jasha who has a strange relationship with a bear he calls Zhukov...and many more...the landscapes whether of Syria or of Arctic Russia are described in loving detail as are the thoughts of the principal protagonists.

[Mr M. Reiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gerald Seymour at his best

I have read all of Mr Seymour’s books starting with Harry’s Game and have loved every one. I don’t feel the need to discuss the storyline, my review is not about that but about the brilliance of the author. Gerald Seymour Is the master of the anti hero and brings his characters to life with a clarity that adds another dimension to the story and adds to the enjoyment factor. Nuff said, just another great novel from a master storyteller.

[Warren C.Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Typical of the master, Seymour!

In most of Gerald Seymour's work, there is unsentimental realism, it's here in spades, but, then he weaves complex tales, and we are treated to rare gentleness. Can't say more, would be spoiler alerts! Simply brilliant! If you're already a fan, this is his best for several. If you're a newby to Seymour, this a great one to start with! Indispensable reading for spy/military fans! The master!

[Sergio GRANDE · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️

There are comedians like Billy Connolly endowed with the ability to tell simple stories -not jokes, mind you- just regular stories that will have an audience gasping for breath. Jerry Seinfeld is another one who may talk about his day, since getting up until getting on stage and have me laughing until my belly aches. It’s a rare gift.

Gerald Seymour is exactly the opposite. He has a gift to create good stories and he plots well. But his telling is convoluted and graceless. His writing is cumbersome.

I don’t expect witty turns of phrase and elegant allusion when reading Seymour. But I don’t enjoy his obstinacy, frequently eschewing pronouns which makes unwarranted demands on the poor reader who tries to figure out who the hell is a paragraph about. Alternatively, Mr. Seymour refuses to tell us the name of the thinker/speaker/wonderer and refers to the character only by a pronoun. Obviously, half his characters are he/him and the other half she/her. So the chances or you guessing right are 50-50. Unless -as it happens several times- he is talking to him and then this he replies to the first him. Toss a coin.

Also, what is the cause of changing timeline, sub-plot and location, not only repeatedly in the same chapter but, sometimes, within the same paragraph? Is the author ADD? He should have that seen to. Could be a sign of early onset dementia. My mother-in-law started off like that.

Indefensible grammar and concentration aside, the story is good if one develops an eye for the unnecessary and skips though the nonsensical paragraphs. Good story, poorly told.

Seymour was a TV journalist for ITV for 15 years, covering Vietnam, Beirut and other flashpoints. And like many a correspondent in a war zone, he is well versed in the art of filling up a three-minute live crossing by stretching 30 seconds worth of unnecessary but impressive detail and tautologies. And it shows. But it’s a hackneyed trick and one skims through another couple of paragraphs. Back to you in the studio.

Word of warning: Maude, the amateur archaeologist (Knacker’s wife); Hadrian’s wall; excavations; diggings. Avoid any paragraph related to those. Shamelessly irrelevant and boring.

Also, there’s a small-time Russian peddler who speaks little English when we first meet him. As the story moves along, a couple of days later, he gives a long hectoring speech using the words narcotics, ordinary, humble, wrongdoing, entitled, rejoice, guilt, beyond, vouch, faith, principle, excitement, 'sentenced and imprisoned', 'despise corruption' and a few other words that non-English speakers usually learn straight after ”My name is Dimitry. This is my house. Roses are red, violets are blue. What is your name? Is this your house? Nice.

One last pearl but by far not the worst flaw: Gaz is a field reconnaissance operative, so all his equipment, including a rifle, is hand-carried. From an excavated hideout, he holds a pair of binoculars (most of the day!) trained on a Russian officer 400 metres away. That’s around four city blocks. Through scrim netting, on a rainy day, even after dark, and he can read the man’s expressions and see the stubble on his chin. He can also pinpoint that a cigarette butt has a yellow tip filter. Do you have an idea the type of magnification needed for that? Do you have any idea of the size and weight of that front element? Hand carried for miles in enemy-infested territory? Come on. That’s crossing the line that separates imagination from bovine excreta.

[Cropredy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been a big fan of Gerald Seymour for years but feared he had lost a step in his most recent works -- too formulaic and too dispiriting.

So, with trepidation, I started "Beyond Recall" - while not Seymour's best work, it was definitely better than other more recent offerings. Here's why I think this was the case:

- Action that took place in three settings - Syria, The Orkneys, and Murmansk. The Murmansk scenes were the best because it is an area not well-covered in novels so it had some intrinsic appeal.
- Time-shifting. Some of the action and motivation for the story is time-shifted back a few years (Syria) while the current-time story unfolds. Seymour drip feeds the Syrian horror as the protagonist embarks on his solo mission to Murmansk
- Movement. Unlike some Seymour novels where a protagonist is fixed in place for chapter-after-chapter, considerable time in the novel is spent on infiltrating Russia from Norway and then exfiltrating. A lot of time is spent in the far north forest, on the move.

Of course, this being Seymour, one gets the perfidious Secret Service "management" always ready to scupper the mission for some greater organizational political goal. After so many Seymour books that highlight the selfservingness of senior MI-6 officers, one wonders why anyone would ever work there.

Overall, a worthwhile read. It won't keep you up past your bedtime but you will want to finish it to see what happens. Will it end in tragedy or redemption or just a muddled inconclusiveness? I won't say but you'll want to know as you read.

[Leanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once I grew used to the unusual style - switching between a plethora of different characters, settings and timelines which occurred not at chapter ends but from paragraph to paragraph and the choppy sentence structure which often did without subjects or pronouns - this complex thriller turned into an engrossing read. Gaz Baldwin lives a quiet life on a remote Orkney Island, trying to recover from witnessing the atrocities that took place in a Syrian village where he was involved in reconnaissance during his final tour. Reluctantly he is lured back to work as an agent who will be dropped into Murmansk in Northern Russia to positively identify the Russian officer who participated in the brutal massacre of the villagers. A simple, in and out mission. But Gaz is not the ordinary man the old boy spy network bargained for, and the situation becomes a lot more convoluted than anyone could have expected. Terrific character development. Not only protagonist Gaz, but Knacker, his crusty, old handler and his “Girl Fridays”; the brave, young Syrian girl whose survival and evidence sparks the undertaking; the couple of young Russian petty crims who are the unlikely “sleepers” whose role it is to assist Gaz in getting the job done; the Russian major and his two grudging minders and Jasha, another former soldier, now living a solitary life in the wilds of the tundra. Descriptions of place are also detailed and atmospheric - Orkney and the tough existence in Murmansk, and the no man’s land separating Norway from its forbidding neighbour.

[Philip Higgins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another intelligent mature thriller from the master. Our damaged loner hero this time is Gaz Baldwin, a traumatized former corporal in the Special Reconnaissance Regiment: this is an actual thing, check out the cool crest. He witnessed a massacre in Syria and is given the chance to cross into Murmansk and confirm the identity of the Russian officer who supervised the atrocity. Quick in, quick out, just ID the target and leave the rest to an off book Syrian hit team. Yeah right....
The depiction of modern Murmansk is convincing and stark. Putin's Russia is shown in all its squalor and the supporting cast's deftly drawn, as per. There's the familiar Seymour theme of bureaucratic spy chiefs neglecting the age old importance of human intelligence. Echoes of empires past are provided by an archaeological dig at Hadrian's Wall. I liked Gaz's tough as nails handler "Knacker" and his Round Table of veteran spies.
The price you pay for the satisfying pay off is a pace that at times borders on the glacial. This was also very similar to the same author's recent "A Damned Serious Business". When you have such a winning formula it's understandable you stick with it, but I would've liked some variations on the theme. Perhaps a book focussing on North Korea or today's other great contemporary tyranny, Communist China. How about rescuing a Uighur from a 're-education centre' or uncovering the true origin of a pandemic? Where's my pen?

[Ned Frederick · Rating 3 out of 5]

The narrative drifts and dips into obscurity on occasion. It’s a bit hard to find the thread at times, and you’re not always sure toward where the story is meandering . But Seymour has a way of lurching awake from time to time to put you back in the picture. I also have to say that some of Seymour's characters have an annoying habit of being obtuse and doing a good bit of navel-gazing... an odd trait for men of action. Of course there are women of action as well, but they are more decisive and fortunately do not seem so hampered by the need to obsessivelyreflect.
I’m a fan of Gerald Seymour. His books are inexplicably hard to find this side of the pond. I’ve had to pick them up on trips to the UK. But now, thankfully, the newest releases are available as ebooks. This book, the setting, the history, all of it intrigues and draws you in. He has a masterful knack for building tension and an expectation of action, without actually delivering the goods. What’s most intriguing about Beyond Recall is the peak under the tent of the Special Reconnaissance Regiment. And in particular the unique character of soldiers selected and trained to the slow dance of surveillance in a combat zone. Despite this and the exotic sub-Arctic setting of much of the later half of the book there were some frustrations for this reader.
Too much fore play for example. Seymour has that tendency. In place of action there is always impending action. I’m not one of those readers who needs an escalating body count to hold my interest. I like characters with depth. I appreciate a well-crafted, nuanced narrative, but three or four storylines playing out in slow motion starts to feel a bit draggy. The denouement develops so gradually the reader barely notices. Seymour really made we work to hold these disparate threads in mind. It’s a cinematic style of story telling that in my mind does not lend itself to narrative efficiency in a novel. Time is against you as a reader of a long and multifaceted novel unlike the easily followed cuts in a two-hour or so movie. It’s a lot of work trying to keep it all straight when a day or two might intervene between reading sessions. That said it was one of Seymour's best, despite the extra effort.

[Gary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite being a fan of Gerald Seymour, in fact "Harry's Game" is among my favorite espionage books, I found this one a struggle. The characters are well written especially the supporting cast and the pace of the plot accelerates towards the climax but those are really the only pluses of the book for me. The premise is gossamer thin and stretches plausibility. It is at least 20 percent too long and is severely overwritten. It is told in two timeframes and three, sometimes four locales which overcomplicates the narrative. The behavior/motivation of the supporting characters is sometimes implausible and lastly, the sentence structure is occasionally so obtuse that it requires multiple readings to glean the meaning. Not one of his best.

[Tanaka · Rating 1 out of 5]

Seymour is never an easy read. I give him that, and as long as the story is interesting and conclusive I go to the bother of reading. However, this novel goes nowhere.
Never-ending self-reflection of different characters, sudden switch of scenery, and over-complicated language.
Mr. Seymour, "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" (L. da Vinci). Your writing is the opposite.
No paragraph, no structure.
'Gave up after 144 pages.
Loved some of the early novels of this author, until his writing became more and more narcissistic, and less and less caring for comprehensibility and readers' joy.
Never again!

[Paul Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with many of Seymour’s books there are multiple threads and characters that are gradually woven together as the story moves towards its denouement. An old man and a wounded bear? Two young Russian drug dealers? A village in Syria? A Norwegian fishing vessel? A former soldier with PTSD living in the Orkney’s? All and many other strands are intricately laid out and then bought together as one.

I found the book a little more difficult to get into than, for instance, Harry’s Game or the Journeyman Tailor by the same author. But once the pace increased in the second half it was a great read and classic Seymour.

[Niqui Stanforth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first time reading Gerald Seymour and I am impressed. The vivid way that the protagonist is haunted by his exposure to war crimes in a way that makes him rethink his whole life is felt viscerally. The soldier was in a completely powerless position to affect the outcome but is forced to re engage with the horror by another external agency using him as a pawn.
In the end he saves himself by taking the initiative away from the faceless bureaucrats and playing to an end game that satisfies him. The dedication and involvement of the side characters is sometimes surprising but not for the reasons one would expect. Karma has a way of effecting balance.

[Richard Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I took too long to read 'Beyond Recall' and only really connected with it over the final third where I was able to immerse myself in its world without any distractions. It's written in a very particular style which, unless you give yourself time to attune to it, can be a little off-putting. The reader has to allow the various elements to come together whence it proves an excellent read.
I don't want to describe the plot, as I don't want to deny a reader the pleasure of discovering the work of a master plotter.

[Phillip · Rating 3 out of 5]

An involved and not a light read, which is based around an atrocity in Syria overseen by a Russian officer. The subsequent efforts on retribution organised by one of the last old-school operators at the modern MI6, involves the only witnesses to the brutal massacre of a village ... the special forces 'watcher' who observed the incident and is now mentally scared and the only sole survivor of the village. The story takes us into Russia seeking the Russian officer responsible.
An absorbing story with all characters very well presented ... but a bit grim.

[Jerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Gerald Seymour fan I thoroughly enjoyed this recent tale. Not for those looking for a simple plot or an obvious conclusion as they would find the work too long and perhaps a bit confusing. You do have to pay attention. But Seymour combines a British soldier with PTSD, a young Syrian girl who survived a wartime atrocity, a pair of free spirited drug dealers, a Russian FSB officer (think KGB), a Russian hermit and a three pawed bear into an almost believable adventure.

[Bob Hurley · Rating 4 out of 5]

An owed Deed with conscience

Found this intriguing, story of an SRR Corporal, his life in a trench in Syria and the impact one women had on him. Quite difficult to read but persevere as you get into Gaz's mind and story you feel a lot of emotions. Very well written and a great story of debt to a commitment made with no idea that it would be honoured nor at what cost.

[j truswell · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent read.

I haven't read a Seymour book for ages but I'm glad I read this one it's an excellent read full of good well rounded and thought out character's .It is a very thought provoking and excellently researched book that keeps you guessing right until the end I highly recommend it.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very mixed feelings about this book. Found the writing style very awkward, everyone spoke in the same voice. Plot not that interesting and the ending was very drawn out. Gaz was a total blank slate and didn't really do anything interesting. And yet I was compelled by it, and felt the very end had a lot of emotion.

[Paddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

And they all lived happily ever after - except it took ages to get there. The plot unfolded so slowly that it was at times hard to stay interested. I reckon the proof readers got a bit fed up as I spotted 2 typos in the last 100 pages or so. Not a bad story though but I’m puzzled by the gratuitous striptease by the lake - this didn’t do anything for the overall plot.

[Judy O'Gorman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always a good read from Gerald Seymour, usual five stars as he keeps his reader gripped with the suspense of the story.
He sets it all out and you know that the strands of the characters will be pulled together.
l loved the part that the bear played and began to second guess how it would become involved in the fast paced story..
A good read

[Chris R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve sometimes thought of Seymour as Le Carrie Lite. I mean no disrespect by that: Le Carre is THE master and to be mentioned in the same breath as him is no small praise.

This novel is especially reminiscent of Le Carre because Russia plays such a key part in it.

[Dorian C Wild · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really, Mr Seymour

This was my 29th Gerald Seymour novel and it may well be my last. Too long, too slow, too plodding...I felt I was wading through a sea of molasses. And, sad to say, this outing was far too similar, far too repetitive of what Seymour has given us before.

[Jeffrey Levy]

As In all Gerald Seymour's books the plot is well thought out. The characters are plausible . I have read all of his books all of which I have thoroughly enjoying enjoyed. I look forward with anticipation to his next one.

[Dave Kirk · Rating 1 out of 5]

The last three of Gerald’s books have been disappointing.
I read a quarter of this book before I gave up and took it back to the library. It was too slow, stretched out and boring.
I have read and enjoyed all his other books from 1976 to 2013 but they have declined Since then.