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November Man #2
Schism
Father Leo Tunney, a missionary who disappeared twenty years before, returns from the jungles of Cambodia and attracts the interest of intelligence agents working for the CIA, the KGB, and the Vatican
370 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
28 people are currently reading
246 people want to read
About the author
Bill Granger
40 books43 followersaka Joe Gash, Bill Griffith
Bill Granger, was a newspaperman turned novelist whose fiction alternated between international spy thrillers and police procedurals set on the gritty streets of Chicago.
Usually under his own name but sometimes under the pseudonym Joe Gash or Bill Griffiths, Mr. Granger wrote 25 novels, many of which evoked the rougher environs of Chicago and included colorful characters with names like Slim Dingo, Tony Rolls and Jesus X Mohammed.
Mr. Granger’s favorite, and perhaps best-known, book was “Public Murders” (1980), in which the city is in an uproar as a rapist-murderer strikes again and again. Public and political pressure exacts an emotional toll on the tough, foulmouthed detectives investigating the crimes. Public Murders won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America in 1981.
Two years before that, Mr. Granger’s first spy novel, The November Man,caused something of an international stir. It involved a plot to assassinate a relative of Queen Elizabeth by blowing up a boat. Later that year, Lord Louis Mountbatten, the queen’s cousin, was killed on his fishing boat when a bomb set by the Irish Republican Army exploded.
Mr. Granger always thought of himself as more of a reporter than an author. “I can’t think of a day without newspapering in it,” he said in a 2003 interview. In his nearly 40 years in journalism, he had reported for United Press International, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Daily Herald. He covered the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland and wrote a series based on interviews with a veteran who had witnessed the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War.
Granger had a stroke in January 2000, and ended his writing career. From 2002 to his death he lived in the Manteno Veterans Home; the immediate cause of death was a heart attack, although he had suffered a series of strokes since the 1990s. He is survived by wife Lori and son Alec.
Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2012/0...
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Bill Granger, was a newspaperman turned novelist whose fiction alternated between international spy thrillers and police procedurals set on the gritty streets of Chicago.
Usually under his own name but sometimes under the pseudonym Joe Gash or Bill Griffiths, Mr. Granger wrote 25 novels, many of which evoked the rougher environs of Chicago and included colorful characters with names like Slim Dingo, Tony Rolls and Jesus X Mohammed.
Mr. Granger’s favorite, and perhaps best-known, book was “Public Murders” (1980), in which the city is in an uproar as a rapist-murderer strikes again and again. Public and political pressure exacts an emotional toll on the tough, foulmouthed detectives investigating the crimes. Public Murders won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America in 1981.
Two years before that, Mr. Granger’s first spy novel, The November Man,caused something of an international stir. It involved a plot to assassinate a relative of Queen Elizabeth by blowing up a boat. Later that year, Lord Louis Mountbatten, the queen’s cousin, was killed on his fishing boat when a bomb set by the Irish Republican Army exploded.
Mr. Granger always thought of himself as more of a reporter than an author. “I can’t think of a day without newspapering in it,” he said in a 2003 interview. In his nearly 40 years in journalism, he had reported for United Press International, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Daily Herald. He covered the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland and wrote a series based on interviews with a veteran who had witnessed the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War.
Granger had a stroke in January 2000, and ended his writing career. From 2002 to his death he lived in the Manteno Veterans Home; the immediate cause of death was a heart attack, although he had suffered a series of strokes since the 1990s. He is survived by wife Lori and son Alec.
Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2012/0...
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
January 3, 2015
Another brilliant November Man novel by Bill Granger! This is my first read of 2015. If I had finished it a few days earlier, I would have rated it one of the best books I had read in 2014. This is the second novel in the November Man series and I think the best I have read so far in that series. I still have another four to go. Granger's skills at character development and complex plotting are exceptional.
Father Leo Tunney, a Catholic priest who had been sent to Laos more than twenty years ago and was long thought dead, emerges from the Cambodian jungle and surfaces at the American embassy in Thailand. There is great interest in and consternation at his sudden emergence from the "dead", so to speak. The CIA, the Catholic church and the Soviets all are deeply concerned about what he might reveal about his experiences in the jungles of Southeast Asia during the missing twenty years.
The Americans fly Father Tunney to Clearwater, Florida, which is the HQ of the branch of the Catholic Church that he had been sent overseas by, both to save souls and and to spy for the CIA. He is interrogated for several days by the CIA who are unable to get him to speak about his experiences. They then turn him over to his church colleagues in Clearwater. The Cardinal who heads the secretive organization, the Congregation for the Protection of the Faith headquartered at the Vatican, dispatches his protege, Irish priest Martin Foley, to interview Tunney and find out if he knows a secret that could be harmful to church interests. Meanwhile the Cardinal heads to Pague to negotiate a Concordance with the Soviets that would allow the Catholic Church to operate in the Eastern Bloc while recognizing the governance of the Soviet authorities and their lackeys in the adjoining countries.The Soviets also dispatch rehabilitated spy Denisov to Clearwater in pursuit of the same secret.
Reporter Rita Macklin who took a photo of Father Tunney in the custody of the CIA in Washington also heads for Florida to seek an interview with Father Tunney. Also dispatched to investigate the priest is Deverereaux, the November Man. After surveying the ground and the players, including some whose identity is unknown,Deverereaux decides his best approach to Tunney is through Macklin so he strikes up a conversation with her by passing himself off as another reporter on vacation. They become intimate but Rita is scared away when she realizes that Deverereaux is one of the spies gathered there.
After the murder of the emissary from Rome, Martin Foley, by Denisov, and the local head of the society to which Tunney belongs by someone unknown, Father Tunney who has been writing a journal of his experiences sends it to Rita Macklin. Macklin, upon reading it , realizes she has journalistic gold and leaves Florida abruptly for parts unknown. But not unknown for long as the forces redeploy to track her down and secure the journal. Except for Denisov, who has been trapped into a fake defection by Devereaux, and is taken way by the FBI. She is pursued by the CIA and the forces of the unknown parties which turn out to represent the International Commercial Bank which has worked with the CIA for decades . The Bank has a big Trans Asia project cooking, in conjunction with the US National Security Adviser, to exploit the cheap labour now available in Vietnam and does not want Tunney's revelations to upset the applecart.
Again Deverereaux rides to the rescue. Like the others he tracks Rita Macklin to Wisconsin and snatches her from right underneath their noses. After escaping detection, they make their way to Washington where the secret that Father Tunney had stumbled on is revealed. It becomes clear what the Soviets are trying to hide and why the Church is aiding them. The President has to intervene to prevent war between China and the Soviets. Rita gets her scoop. And she and Devereraux reconnect for the beginning of a relationship that lasts through the ensuing novels.
Father Leo Tunney, a Catholic priest who had been sent to Laos more than twenty years ago and was long thought dead, emerges from the Cambodian jungle and surfaces at the American embassy in Thailand. There is great interest in and consternation at his sudden emergence from the "dead", so to speak. The CIA, the Catholic church and the Soviets all are deeply concerned about what he might reveal about his experiences in the jungles of Southeast Asia during the missing twenty years.
The Americans fly Father Tunney to Clearwater, Florida, which is the HQ of the branch of the Catholic Church that he had been sent overseas by, both to save souls and and to spy for the CIA. He is interrogated for several days by the CIA who are unable to get him to speak about his experiences. They then turn him over to his church colleagues in Clearwater. The Cardinal who heads the secretive organization, the Congregation for the Protection of the Faith headquartered at the Vatican, dispatches his protege, Irish priest Martin Foley, to interview Tunney and find out if he knows a secret that could be harmful to church interests. Meanwhile the Cardinal heads to Pague to negotiate a Concordance with the Soviets that would allow the Catholic Church to operate in the Eastern Bloc while recognizing the governance of the Soviet authorities and their lackeys in the adjoining countries.The Soviets also dispatch rehabilitated spy Denisov to Clearwater in pursuit of the same secret.
Reporter Rita Macklin who took a photo of Father Tunney in the custody of the CIA in Washington also heads for Florida to seek an interview with Father Tunney. Also dispatched to investigate the priest is Deverereaux, the November Man. After surveying the ground and the players, including some whose identity is unknown,Deverereaux decides his best approach to Tunney is through Macklin so he strikes up a conversation with her by passing himself off as another reporter on vacation. They become intimate but Rita is scared away when she realizes that Deverereaux is one of the spies gathered there.
After the murder of the emissary from Rome, Martin Foley, by Denisov, and the local head of the society to which Tunney belongs by someone unknown, Father Tunney who has been writing a journal of his experiences sends it to Rita Macklin. Macklin, upon reading it , realizes she has journalistic gold and leaves Florida abruptly for parts unknown. But not unknown for long as the forces redeploy to track her down and secure the journal. Except for Denisov, who has been trapped into a fake defection by Devereaux, and is taken way by the FBI. She is pursued by the CIA and the forces of the unknown parties which turn out to represent the International Commercial Bank which has worked with the CIA for decades . The Bank has a big Trans Asia project cooking, in conjunction with the US National Security Adviser, to exploit the cheap labour now available in Vietnam and does not want Tunney's revelations to upset the applecart.
Again Deverereaux rides to the rescue. Like the others he tracks Rita Macklin to Wisconsin and snatches her from right underneath their noses. After escaping detection, they make their way to Washington where the secret that Father Tunney had stumbled on is revealed. It becomes clear what the Soviets are trying to hide and why the Church is aiding them. The President has to intervene to prevent war between China and the Soviets. Rita gets her scoop. And she and Devereraux reconnect for the beginning of a relationship that lasts through the ensuing novels.
December 18, 2021
Okay so this is my 2nd book 📖, in the November Man Series.
I'm hooked, & it's all off the movie 🎥 The November Man.
Schism, is about a priest who disappeared 20 years ago, and was believed dead.
Walks out of the Cambodian jungle, and to the US Embassy in Bangkok.
Where once he identifies himself, all hell breaks loose.
From the CIA, to the KGB, to the Vatican. All want to know what he has seen & heard 👂 for the last 20 years.
Hell, what I want to know is why is the Catholic Church ⛪ involved?
What is this BIG secret that Father Tunney know?
It would seem alot of people have their hands in this pot.
Of course the media, is having a field day with Father Tunney's re-appearance.
Speculations are flying, and it all makes one go Hmmmmmmmmm for real.
In comes Devereux from R section, and a reporter named Rita Macklin who has her own questions for the Father.
Now let the games, begin.
The game of espionage is exciting & deadly. Just make sure you're not on the wrong side.
But I'm going to stop now, if you want to know what the big secret is and who all are involved.
Then you best get your copy, and get to reading 📚.
Until then, Happy Reading 📚!!!!
Ciao 💋
I'm hooked, & it's all off the movie 🎥 The November Man.
Schism, is about a priest who disappeared 20 years ago, and was believed dead.
Walks out of the Cambodian jungle, and to the US Embassy in Bangkok.
Where once he identifies himself, all hell breaks loose.
From the CIA, to the KGB, to the Vatican. All want to know what he has seen & heard 👂 for the last 20 years.
Hell, what I want to know is why is the Catholic Church ⛪ involved?
What is this BIG secret that Father Tunney know?
It would seem alot of people have their hands in this pot.
Of course the media, is having a field day with Father Tunney's re-appearance.
Speculations are flying, and it all makes one go Hmmmmmmmmm for real.
In comes Devereux from R section, and a reporter named Rita Macklin who has her own questions for the Father.
Now let the games, begin.
The game of espionage is exciting & deadly. Just make sure you're not on the wrong side.
But I'm going to stop now, if you want to know what the big secret is and who all are involved.
Then you best get your copy, and get to reading 📚.
Until then, Happy Reading 📚!!!!
Ciao 💋
October 3, 2021
I have found myself looking for older spy novels, ones that take place during the Cold War. Part of the reason is to get away from the era of smartphones & back to a focus on characters.
Here we find the world faced with an enigma. Someone walks out of the jungle and claims to be a long lost American missionary. It sets of a series of questions, with multiple factions vying to learn what ever secrets are in his head. If any. It is a case of secrets must remain secrets, but by making sure said secrets are kept hidden away, their very existence is revealed.
Deveraux is back, being the cool and collected agent of R Section. He always has an ability to see what others can not, then take action upon it. Even if it means hurting those around him to complete the job at hand.
Overall, better than the first book. I will pick up the next book to follow Deveraux in the pre-web world.
Here we find the world faced with an enigma. Someone walks out of the jungle and claims to be a long lost American missionary. It sets of a series of questions, with multiple factions vying to learn what ever secrets are in his head. If any. It is a case of secrets must remain secrets, but by making sure said secrets are kept hidden away, their very existence is revealed.
Deveraux is back, being the cool and collected agent of R Section. He always has an ability to see what others can not, then take action upon it. Even if it means hurting those around him to complete the job at hand.
Overall, better than the first book. I will pick up the next book to follow Deveraux in the pre-web world.
November 15, 2018
I have tried reading several of Granger's novels and find them somewhat difficult to get through not sure why but they don't match up well with many of the other authors on my list by free from the local public library
January 4, 2017
Devereaux fits the picture of the best agent. Physical where necessary but first and foremost excelling at the intellectual level.
June 11, 2017
My brief enthusiasm about having found a new (at least for me), exciting spy series is already on the wane with this second entry which seems more than a Church thriller (nothing wrong with that as such) than an espionage romp. Problem is that for most of the first half nothing much of any danger seems to happen, such one expository scene after the next. And the final revelation is pretty much a not very exciting anti-climax. Ok read. May give this series one more chance but will probably wait a while to continue with it.
July 19, 2023
Pretty boring all things considered, kind of a fun energy but not much happens and the details of Tunney’s big secret don’t seem fully tied into the resolution of the boom.
April 11, 2015
Schism is the second book in the November Man series. I am totally enamored of this series and have a great appreciation for this sub-genre of thriller, an espionage story. I received a copy of Schism from Netgalley, which rocks by the way. I love this series enough that if it exists on audiobook I will be reliving it again and buying them. When I learned that this series started originally in 1979 I wondered how it was that I had missed them all these years. No worries I have found them and plan to devour them one after another.
Schism has the frosty November Man, Agent Devereaux, in Miami, investigating the return of a Catholic priest who went missing over 20 years prior in Asia, Agent Devereaux's former playground, where he spent many years stationed. Every agency wants to know where the priest has been during all of the years he has been missing and given the possibility that he may have been involved with the CIA while he was in Asia there is great concern about what secrets he may have. Every letter of the alphabet soup of the government has touched down in Miami to determine the priest's next moves, including the Russians. There is murder, mayhem, and many secrets that come to light. We get to see the November Man at his best and a bit of his vulnerability. Really looking forward to The Shattered Eye. Review can also be seen at LadyTechie's Book Musings http://LadyTechiesBookMusings.blogspo...
Schism has the frosty November Man, Agent Devereaux, in Miami, investigating the return of a Catholic priest who went missing over 20 years prior in Asia, Agent Devereaux's former playground, where he spent many years stationed. Every agency wants to know where the priest has been during all of the years he has been missing and given the possibility that he may have been involved with the CIA while he was in Asia there is great concern about what secrets he may have. Every letter of the alphabet soup of the government has touched down in Miami to determine the priest's next moves, including the Russians. There is murder, mayhem, and many secrets that come to light. We get to see the November Man at his best and a bit of his vulnerability. Really looking forward to The Shattered Eye. Review can also be seen at LadyTechie's Book Musings http://LadyTechiesBookMusings.blogspo...
May 9, 2013
One of the most original and unusual spy novels I've ever read. Father Leo Tunney walks out of the jungles of Cambodia to the US embassy in Bangkok. He's been gone for twenty years. The CIA holds him incommunicado, then lets him go to take up residence at an order in Florida. Suddenly, agents from several intelligence agencies are in the area. From the Vatican, the Soviets, the CIA, and an unknown fourth group. Also in the area is The November Man from R section. Why so many spies in one area all interested in one old priest? What does he have to do with national security? Then, during mass, the old priest lays hands on a bent and twisted woman with Scoliosis, and she is cured! It's a miracle! Bill Granger really knew how to build suspense through a quiet conversation. The action is spare, but vivid. Not as good as The November Man, but my attention never wavered.
April 5, 2014
Overlooked series by a former Chicago Sun-Times columnist. The November Man hails from a secret intelligence agency buried in the Department of Agriculture and designed to keep an eye on those responsible for the Bay of Pigs and other fiascos. A long missing priest wanders out of the jungle and into the U.S. embassy in Laos. The CIA, the Soviets, the Vatican and, of course, the November Man, all take an interest. Entertaining spy thriller.
October 19, 2014
Father Leo Tunney has been missing for 20 years and presumed dead. When he shows up at the US embassy in Bangkok it makes world headlines. When a reporter scoops his story, her apartment is ram sacked and she is advised to drop the story. Father Tunney has to make a decision about the knowledge that he acquired while missing.
September 7, 2022
The first 75-80 pages felt like an editor would have come in handy but then the action kicks in and you see why all that set up was necessary. This was an exciting novel and never felt flat after those first hundred pages or so. I will continue reading Granger's November Man series. They are just great to read.
February 27, 2015
Another solid Devereaux adventure in which the series' protagonist is more a 'bit-part' player in the mission. Still a good read and the plot is better than the original novel, though Devereaux is the man that keeps the interest for me.
June 25, 2016
Great Stuff. Early November.
July 28, 2013
This was a good spy book, stuff I liked to read when I was younger. Granger does a good job of keeping up suspense, and keeping you wondering what's going to happen next. Overall an enjoyable read.
May 30, 2014
A step down from November Man.
December 10, 2014
The villain and plot remind me of Fleming's earlier works; especially Dr. No. A great series that hides its age well.
May 14, 2015
The second in Granger's November Man series, I thought it was even better than the first--and I thought the first was superb! I'm going to stick with the series for now.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews