Confessor

Herbie Kruger #5

by John Gardner

Gus Keene, former colleague of Herbie Kruger in the British Secret Intelligence Service, is, like his old friend, retired. Yet he has barely had time to smell the roses (and to begin work on his long-planned memoirs) when his car explodes, killing him instantly, not ten minutes down the rural lane leading from his peaceful country cottage. Could his tragedy have been an innocent road accident? Or is there a darker, more sinister meaning? Since Gus Keene had spent a career as one of the SIS's most highly regarded inquisitors, or "confessors," debriefing hundreds of defectors, suspected double-agents and other secret-keepers in the great game of espionage, nothing can be taken for granted about his untimely death. As Herbie, out of shape and out of form but steadily more curious, pulls himself together to delve into Keene's past and the black arts of the "Confessor," he discovers a bizarre fact: a man who professionally pursued truth was privately obsessed with illusion. In disguise and under another name, Gus Keene was a well-known authority on magic. Soon the strands of Keene's double life combine to form a deadly connection among certain unsettling global conflicts: Northern Ireland, the Falklands, the war in the Gulf plus a string of terrorist acts. The magic of illusion and the menace of remorseless ideological violence converge to form a terrifying maze that began in Herbie Kruger's own past and leads to his extremely dangerous present.

Genres: Fiction

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Before coming an author of fiction in the early 1960s, John Gardner was variously a stage magician, a Royal Marine officer and a journalist. In all, Gardner has fifty-four novels to his credit, including Maestro, which was the New York Times book of the year. He was also invited by Ian Fleming’s literary copyright holders to write a series of continuation James Bond novels, which proved to be so successful that instead of the contracted three books he went on to publish some fourteen titles, including Licence Renewed and Icebreaker.

Having lived in the Republic of Ireland, the United States and the UK, John Gardner sadly died in August of 2007 having just completed his third novel in the Moriarty trilogy, Conan Doyle’s eponymous villain of the Sherlock Holmes series.

Reviews

[wally · Rating 3 out of 5]

8 oct 17, sunday evening, finished this one on the tree stand, 'bout a quarter after five, good story. i liked it. 3 stars. 1st from gardner for me, too, library loan, kindle.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Better and better…

I have come to love the Herbie Kruger series and will at some point re-read them all. They have the flair of Le Carré with the grit of Deighton and a touch of Ma’am Agatha!

This was something of a departure as a spy novel, I won’t say more because I don’t want to spike to plot for anyone, but there are more than a few surprises.

[Mike Hambrecht · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big Herbie’s last adventure

I have been fan of John Gardner since reading my first James Bond novel, Role of Honour. Later I learned he wrote other books as well. I eventually picked up the Secrets Trilogy, which led me to Herbie Kruger and I was hooked.

[Larry West · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last of the Barbie Kruger series as
Nd maybe the best.

[Philip Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb

A really good espionage story full of hard boiled characters and a mixture of IRA and the middle East with a great extra treat of magicians

[Jennifer Pearson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good spy thriller type of book. I thought it was a bit slow to start with but a good book