A Singular Spy by Amanda Kyle Williams

A Singular Spy
by Amanda Kyle Williams
Pages: 179
Date: May 1 1992
Publisher: Naiad Press
Series: Madison McGuire (3rd in series)

Review
Rating: 4.64
Read: October 25 2016

The third spy thriller starring Madison McGuire finds her dealing with a mole, or the potential for one, in the CIA.

This book takes place mostly in Switzerland, with some parts taking place in Moscow, Washington DC, and ‘the Carolinas’ (whichever one Terry and Madison’s place is located, it gets referred to as ‘the Carolinas’ in the book).

As in the prior books, a) more than Madison herself gets to have a point of view; b) there’s a bit of ‘other potential lesbians’ around (a prior book had one of Madison’s trainers be bisexual, though I do not know if that word was actually used), and in this book there are three lesbian spies (and a fourth lesbian in the book – Terry) – Donna, Madison, and Alex – all three working on the same mission on the same team; c) there’s a bit of ‘government work is hard/conspiracies regarding governments and government work, etc.’ – I thought, while reading the book, about John Le Carré and how his spy thrillers were kind of depressing and involved burnt out (or near there) spies, and spy work isn’t that glamorous vibe (looking to get his name right, I ended up on ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ which involves a spy implanted decades ago by the Russians . . . though in British Intelligence, instead of the CIA – yeah, a common enough spy theme, just interesting I ended up there when that’s the theme of this specific book here with Madison).

I think it was something I was told on GoodReads, something I read somewhere, or something I dreamed (I’m leaning heavily towards ‘was told’) – the bit of romance got added because the author turned in a copy of the first book without it and the publisher talked her into adding it. Correct or not, fair or not, I’ve always had a kind of ‘tacked on’ vibe about the whole Terry-Madison affair, though it was bitter sweet in this book here.

Right, so – as noted, there’s a mole that was implanted in the CIA – or at least there’s evidence of one that came to light when a specific station chief in Geneva was murdered. He had apparently been handing out some secrets, and there’s evidence that he wasn’t the only one involved. Madison is sent in to investigate – she asks to go in with a team she builds herself, with outsiders – which causes the team to become disavowalable (which doesn’t appear to be a word, hmm, made them be put in a position wherein they could be disavowaled . . . wherein they might have someone disavowal them. Bah.) Madison team consists of Donna, someone Madison had worked with in the past – former CIA head of . . . hmm . . . information? Along with her were people with names like ‘Harley’, ‘Old Charlie’, ‘Alex’, and . . . there may or may not be more, but I forget now.
There was a strong neat plot to follow, much excitement, many POV’s – one of which (well, two) involved following two spies in Moscow – a CIA one, and a KGB one (though he was also a spy for the CIA).

An enjoyable book. There’s nothing that would cause me to hesitate to recommend this to any and everyone who likes spy books.

Rating: 4.64

October 26 2016