Club Twelve by Amanda Kyle Williams

Club Twelve
by Amanda Kyle Williams
Pages: 267
Date: May 1 1990
Publisher: Naiad Press
Series: Madison McGuire (1st in series)

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: September 3 to 6 2016

I do not recall exactly how I ended up on this series, but it looked interesting and, despite there being no digital version of the books, decided to order all of the series despite there being very little information about each individual book.

The Setting and Time Period
First off, this book was published in 1990, but set in the late 1970s (1978) during the presidential term of President Boone (no those with weak memories, the president during that time period was Carter, Boone is a fictional president).

The book moves around both the US and Europe. Spending some time in Colorado (Vail), Massachusetts (Boston, Cambridge), Virginia (Langley, Camp . . . I'm going to say 'Perry' - the training base for operatives), Washington DC, North Carolina; England (London), Liechtenstein, Germany, and Switzerland.

The Players
This is one of those books that jump around from various points of view. There is one main one though - that being Madison McGuire - a long time undercover agent for the NIOS - an offshoot of the CIA.

Madison McGuire
It is difficult, at times, to write something for a physical book. I cannot now quickly locate certain things. Like I am unsure if her actual age is in the 30s or 40s region. Though I do know she is a long time operative for the NOIS. Her father was a London CIA station chief who was murdered (though not in London; and a year before the book started, Madison's long time girlfriend was murdered (this time in London). Madison's girlfriend was killed because she was wearing Madison's raincoat and getting into Madison's car - they thought they were killing Madison (code-named Scorpion).

Terry Woodall
Woodall is a student at a college in Cambridge, and - important to the CIA/NOIS/US Intelligence - she is the daughter of a man who runs the Woodall corporation. They, the NOIS, desire to recruit Terry to go undercover against her own father - though specifically because they suspect that her step-brother is evil (I was going to put what they suspected, realized that would be spoiler-y, then went with 'evil'). As someone about to graduate college, I'd put her as being somewhere in her 20s (I believe it might be a graduate program, so that would raise her age a tiny bit - so that it would be less like someone nearish 40 dating someone nearish 18 - last book I read had someone who was a father of a young woman - the man was 16 when the kid was born, and the kid is now somewhere around 22 - so 22 & 38; she's early 20s).

Right, sorry, jumped the gun there. 1) Terry is a lesbian. 2) Madison is a lesbian (though only the director of the NOIS, Andrew McFaye (who is something like Madison's surrogate father) knows that Madison is a lesbian - otherwise she would be kicked out of the organization for being an 'evil disgusting homo'). Madison followed Terry to Vail to 'recruit' her. Specifically followed her into a gay bar. She wasn't specifically supposed to recruit her through sex; though things happen (no they did not have sex in Vail - just a start of a romance).

Do not be fooled by the book description (though I think the book description is now different from what I'd seen) - the book is not actually specifically about Terry working undercover. Though that is a tiny part of it.

The Spy Chiefs
Various agency heads have their own moments of telling things, specifically the head of NOIS, and the (deputy?) head of the CIA.

The Club of 12, or Club 12
Some of the 'stuff' that happens in the book is in the view of the Club 12 people.

The Helpers
Over the course of the book, Madison comes into contact with people who help her (either agency people, or old friends).

The Plot
The book opens with a man being killed - the prologue. He had a lengthy report on the Club 12 organization, though he did not know all of the top people. He was killed before he could turn over the report, but the US intelligence community already knew of Club 12 (though not the members).

The intelligence community seeks and tentatively gets authorization to investigate Club 12 – specifically because one of the few Club 12 members they think they know is located in the USA. And the CIA and the like are not supposed to operate in the USA.

They tap one ‘Madison McGuire’ to work on the case. She had been one of the best field operatives in the organization before the incident that had occurred in London a year ago. Since then she has worked on the desk. This will be her first case out in the field in a year. I keep saying the same thing over and over, eh?

Madison goes about recruiting someone to investigate the Woodall corporation. Becomes romantically entangled. Follows the suspected Club 12 member to Europe. Hops around Europe.

Things unfold badly.

Lesbian? Romance?
As mentioned – both Madison and Terry are lesbians. No kicking around the idea, they are in fact out and out lesbians. And there is a bit of romance between the two that occurs in the book – though, except for moments here and there (which includes bits of sex), the book is more of a long distance romance.

Overall
An enjoyable book - I liked it.

Note – it might be noticed that I have been somewhat ‘slow reading’ this book. It’s a physical book. Those take longer to read. Since I can’t pull it out at any moment to read (like with a digital book), but have to wait for special moments.