Thursday 16 April 2009

URBAN FANTASY REVIEW: The Spy who Haunted Me - Simon R Green

BOOK BLURB:

The legendary Independent Agent is dying . . . so who will inherit his hoard of secret information and fabulous secrets? For most of the last century, he was the greatest spy in the world, but now The Independent Agent is retiring, he has decided on one last great game - the six greatest spies in the world today must work together - and compete against each other - to solve the six greatest mysteries in the world. Whoever wins the game will also win The Agent's priceless treasure-trove of information. Eddie Drood, aka Shaman Bond, has been invited to join the great game, and of course he can't say no, especially when he learns what the mysteries are - everything from the Tunguska Incident to the Philadelphia Experiment, to whatever the hell it was really happened at Roswell. But that means he needs to survive working alongside old friends and old enemies . . . especially when the spies start dying, one by one . . . And one of them is going to haunt him . . . for the rest of his life. THE SPY WHO HAUNTED ME is the third of the Secret Histories: a riveting roller-coaster ride through the dark side.


REVIEW:

If you’ve followed the current new series by Simon (the Secret Histories) then you’ll know that we’ve been a little suspicious about whether or not the series is trying to be serious or is a riotous mickey take blending the Supernatural and Spy genre. Luckily for us, we got over our reservations during book two so when the third tale landed we were more than prepared.

What you get with Simon is a well crafted story and it was nice to see his main protagonist of the series get an outing on his own rather than his double teaming with his squeeze, Molly Metcalf. What also brought a great deal of joy to us was the use of another of his characters from the Nightside that allowed the full blending of the worlds to come full circle. A masters touch. Into this cauldron of creativity, you will also find a serious kick-ass plotline, cracking additional characters and of course, evidence that this author plays for keeps. Its going to be very interesting to see where the series goes to next time but I have a feeling that a certain Bond is going to end up in the middle of a Fae war at some point in time. If you are looking for something a little different within the UF genre, then this is really going to float your boat. Great stuff.

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