SPY THRILLER REVIEW: Black Bear - Aly Monroe

Release Date: 09/05/13
Publisher:  John Murray

SYNOPSIS:

From the author of ICELIGHT, winner of the 2012 Ellis Peters Historical Fiction Award, BLACK BEAR is the fourth in the critically acclaimed Peter Cotton series following the fortunes of British spy Peter Cotton as he navigates the treacherous uncertainties of the post-war world. For all fans of John le Carre, Robert Harris, Eric Ambler and Graham Greene. 'Confirms Aly Monroe's genius for creating tension...' Daily Telegraph Sent to Manhattan as part of the British effort to build intelligence into the new United Nations Organisation 'from the foundations up', Agent Peter Cotton wakes up in the Ogden Clinic on East 76th Street, a private facility reserved for very special patients and veterans. He is told he was found badly bruised, slumped in a doorway, and that he had been injected with at least three 'truth-drugs'. He is lucky to be alive. Plagued by vertigo, colour blindness and tunnel vision, and unable to be certain what is real and what hallucinatory, Cotton must piece together what has happened to him, find out who is responsible and why. What he discovers is even more unsettling. His biggest uncertainty? Why he has been allowed to live.


REVIEW:

I love a story that works on many levels and to have one that delves into a time of the Cold War whilst the second world war is still within memory all round is a cracking setting for a reader to delve into. Add to this a story that has some great twists, well written and of course a tale that keeps the reader on the edge of what’s reality vs. imagination all round gives this something of a bite.

That said, I had problems with the lead character as he wasn’t what I was expecting to come to the fore within a tale like this which when backed with some twists that were a little too subtle left me more than a little confused by the books end. Now I’m not saying its bad and there will be a lot of people out there that will get it more than me, but when I don’t understand a lot of what has happened then I tend to get niggled as I feel a little stupid for not comprehending it.

SPY THRILLER REVIEW: Peter Cotton 1: Icelight - Aly Monroe

Release Date: 13/10/11

SYNOPSIS:

1947. Threadbare London endures the bleakest, coldest winter for decades. Food rationing is worse than during the war. Coal supplies run out. The Thames freezes over.
Against a background of black ice, blackouts and the black market, agent Peter Cotton is seconded to Operation Sea-snake. MI5 is in the grip of civil war; MI6 is riddled with traitors. Unsure who to trust - or even who is pulling the strings - Cotton, ever the outsider, must protect an atomic scientist caught up in a vicious homophobic witch-hunt, limit the damage caused by a bully-boy MP, rely on a rent-boy informer and, despite the murderous attentions of a couple of Glasgow razor boys, embark on a ruthless hunt of his own.


REVIEW:

In all honesty, this title is a different type of book, it’s got all the hallmarks of a thriller with dodgy underhand dealings, political manipulations as well as a labyrinth of twists and turns which leave you wondering if it’s a painting by MC Escher but for me, it’s the characters that brings this title set during the late Forties to life.

The pace is stunning, the prose equally deceptive but when you add Aly’s writing style to the mix, it becomes something that I think will set the standard for future releases from other authors as she walk’s the path of established Spy Thrillers, not just with reckless abandon but with her own sure footed comprehension as to what the modern reader wants. Definitely an author to watch and one that I know a few people who are going to enjoy spending time with.