A song at twilight

by Bryan Forbes

A Bryan Forbes spy thriller set in London, Moscow and Leningrad. As Britain descends into anarchy, discredited MI6 officer Alec Hillsden, exiled in Leningrad, tries to smuggle out of Russia evidence that will expose the socialist British Prime Minister as a puppet of the Soviet Government.

Genres: Thriller, Espionage, Fiction, Spy Thriller

432 pages, Hardcover

First published June 16, 1990

About the author

Bryan Forbes CBE (born John Theobald Clarke) was an English film director, screenwriter, film producer, actor and novelist, described as a "Renaissance man" and "one of the most important figures in the British film industry".

He directed the film The Stepford Wives (1975) and wrote and directed several other critically acclaimed films, including Whistle Down the Wind (1961), Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964), and King Rat (1965). He also scripted several films directed by others, such as The League of Gentlemen (1960), The Angry Silence (1960) and Only Two Can Play (1962).

Forbes wrote two volumes of autobiography and several successful novels, the last of which, The Soldier's Story, was published in 2012.He was a regular contributor to The Spectator magazine.

Reviews

[Alayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do wish books would give a list of characters at the beginning just like you get in plays. I found some of them a bit confusing as to who was who!
Overall very readable and nicely descriptive. A fairly typical spy novel :)

[Caleb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty decent spy thriller from the 1990s. The ending was a little unsatisfactory and asked a little too much suspension of disbelief. Also too much explicit violence for my taste.

[Scott Holstad · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is little doubt that with the thriller, A Spy at Twilight, Bryan Forbes is trying to become a contemporary of Forsyth. Sadly, he fails. See, the secret to Forsyth's success is his enormous dedication to research, details, and planning, as well as intricate story telling. Forbes shares none of these traits. He spins a decent yarn, yes, but not nearly as well as Forsyth.

In this book, a booby trapped corpse explodes when investigated by a couple of British cops, killing both, and setting off a massive investigation. England is "ruled" by a socialist prime minister who it's hard to pin down and I attribute that to the author -- the prime minister is clearly influenced by the head of the secret service -- MI6 -- who in this novel is called "Control," which just seems so wrong. What seems even more wrong is the hero of all of the James Bond novels and countless Forsyth novels, "Control" is a Russian plant working to overthrow Britain for Russian rule. That's literally unthinkable to me. And he seems, at times, to have the prime minister working alongside him, and at other times, the prime minister doesn't seem to have a clue about what's going on. It's very confusing.

Another part of the plot involves a former British spy, Hillsden, who has defected to the Russians, who was forced to by the prime minister and Control and who now, just to survive, works for the GRU. And he's bitter. He writes his memoirs and attempts to get them back to a colleague in Britain, but it only leads to various deaths.

Meanwhile, the protagonist, Waddington, is a former MI6 spy, now working for a security company who has been seduced by a mysterious rich hottie who is working for Control, although he of course doesn't know it. And to my total shock, the author kills him off about 80% of the way through the book. So now what? Well, there are secondary characters who now take over, but it's very confusing. You expect to make it through the whole book with the protagonist, don't you? Generally? Perhaps it's post-modern.... I didn't like it though.

Another thing I didn't like was small details like the following: the author several times referred to revolver "magazines." Um, revolvers don't have magazines. I know. I have one. I also have semiautomatic handguns. Those do have magazines. Get it right. The author is also extremely obsessed with AIDS. Now I know this book was published in the middle of the AIDS epidemic in 1989, so I can empathize, but come on. We get it. We are So.Very.Happy.You.Did.Not.Get.AIDS. God, go on and on about it, dude! Additionally, the terrorist known as "The Fat Boy" is not fat. He forces some type of cyanide pill down the throat of the woman who has seduced Waddington by kissing her, which seems a little unlikely. And Keating seems to good to be true, as spy turned movie producer turned good guy.

This isn't really a bad book. It's just not really a good one either. It could have done with some polishing, a little rewriting, some editing, some adjustments. That would have upped my rating to four stars. As it is, it's three stars and uneasily recommended if you can't find any other thrillers to read.

[Lily Mulholland · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the kind of old-fashioned spy novel that was read by millions in the 80s but has no resonance today. The writing is verbose, there are long expository passages, the narrator is omnipotent and omniscient and none of the characters necessarily appeals to the reader. You read the book, think about the totally unrealistic plot for about five minutes and then wonder what the point was. The main characters (if you could call them that) are under-developed and many of them killed off before the book's surprisingly suspenseless climax. Now I understand why books date so fast and so many are not reprinted. The world moves on and so do our tastes in novels.

[Mavis Thresher · Rating 5 out of 5]

London, 1990: the Right Honorable Toby Bayldon is the prime minister of a Socialist government presiding over an increasingly leftist and anarchic Britain. When a booby-trapped corpse kills two policemen in Hyde Park, it also sets off an investigation that threatens the stability of the regime. A new author for me, although I remember him as an actor many years ago in England. He writes knowledgeably of the machinations of the British Secret Service and he writes well, nearly as good as John LeCarre. Looking forward to his other spy novels.

[Eli Pollack · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hopefully, without giving too much away, the book might be subtitled "Whoever Is Alive at the End Wins".

I don't know if the Russians were so crass and immoral (though present day Putin would lead me to believe "yes") or if Britain was so far along in its collapse (though present day England would lead me to believe "No") but, in any case, the whole thing was rather a depressing read.

But thank G-d for babies and the hope they bring.

[Lysergius · Rating 3 out of 5]

A spy thriller set in London, Moscow and Leningrad. As Britain descends into anarchy, discredited MI6 officer Alec Hillsden, exiled in Leningrad, tries to smuggle out of Russia evidence that will expose the socialist British Prime Minister as a puppet of the Soviet Government.

Well they would, wouldn't they. It could hardly be a conservative PM. Biased and full of propaganda.

[Jackie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't finish it.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

An alright spy thriller, very dated