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A Spy's Life    by Henry Porter order for
Spy's Life
by Henry Porter
Order:  USA  Can
Simon & Schuster, 2002 (2001)
Hardcover, Paperback

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* *   Reviewed by Hilary Williamson

The story starts with a bang as UN investigator Bobby Harland is the sole survivor of a plane that crashed during its landing sequence at La Guardia airport. Harland is a man with a past that includes a stint with MI6, a liaison with an enemy spy and torture. An ex-colleague, now a senior member of MI6 shows a surprising interest in people and events prior to the crash, as does the FBI. It turns out that Harland sat next to an old friend who just happens to have been investigating a Serbian war criminal, whose death was somewhat exaggerated.

Then a young man turns up, claiming to be Bobby's son, and bringing along his own baggage of complications and danger, involving application of the Internet and telecommunications to give secrets 'wings of their own.' The action and the violence moves on to Britain and then to Europe, as Harland attempts to solve a puzzle with roots in his own past, and to bring down a mass murderer with protectors in surprising places.

A Spy's Life is a meld of of war crimes, digital espionage, old romance, distasteful compromise and extreme danger. It's not Le Carr9 but a very good read nevertheless.


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