The Spy in Question by Amanda Kyle Williams

The Spy in Question by Amanda Kyle Williams

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


And we, as in me, have once again reached the end of a series. It has been 13+ years since the last book appeared, and a completely different series has popped up and reached three books since then, so a fifth book is unlikely and/or unexpected to appear.

This specific book finds Madison McGuire focused on and in Peru.

The President is up for reelection and he figures it might help his chances if he ‘did something’ about drugs. He looks at some plans then sets two separate ones in motion. Then turns things over to his Chief of Staff with the idea that he’d have plausible deniability (you know, like with Oliver North and that Iran-Contra thingie).

One mission involves a group of military personal inserted into the jungles of Peru. Their mission: destroy coco processing locations, record plane tail numbers, and in general cause havoc to Shining Path guerilla force which claims the coco fields as their own (and those fields, apparently, are where 70% of the coco comes from (I got confused somewhere along the way as to whether or not this was 70% of Columbia’s drug cartels coco production or 70% of the world’s coco production)). Note about the book description: It is misleading, specifically the part that reads “The resistance fighters are disciplined and courageous, their main cog Paulina Holgodo, a jungle-savvy Latina” (first off – that implies that Holgodo is a member of the resistance (and the prior paragraph lets the reader know that ‘the resistance’ is not referring to the US military force inserted into the jungle – what with the line ‘American help to a small resistance band hidden in the Peruvian jungle’), Holgodo is a Sergeant with the US military, not a resistance fighter; her band of military personal are not, in fact, in the jungle helping a small resistance band – they themselves are the small group running around the jungle shooting things. Though there is a resistance group, it isn’t connected to the military personal, and as far as I know, they are not even specifically connected to the jungle).

Mission two involves Madison McGuire sent into Peru to make contact with a specific fella who was a farmer, but is now the head of a brand new resistance group – the National Liberation Front (I believe that was the name used). The Shining Path had wandered in and destroyed a community –killing a few of the members there, killing cows, taking some animals, and then leaving. One of the people killed was that fella’s sister. Naturally he’s pissed. The government is corrupt and powerless in the face of the Shining Path, and the Shining Path, despite having some vague seed of ‘fighting for the people’, is corrupt and hooked up with the drug cartels. And so, that fella (I really should have used his name at some point, I believe it’s something like Enrique Navarro), raises the local people to fight back – or at least defend themselves and their communities against the Shining Path.

And, as is something of a common theme with this series, the government, as in the US government, is kind of dickish and corrupt – out for its own interests. I’ve mentioned it before – that specific thread reminds me a lot of how John Le Carre books go – what with the sad depressed operatives working for depressing incompetent and/or corrupt government forces.

This is a damn good series, and readable by any and everyone. It is unfortunate that some would notice that Madison McGuire was a lesbian and flee in the opposite direction, crying out in horror. But, their horrific homophobia is both their loss and mine (since the one group kept themselves from reading four good books; and another (as in me) find themselves having only four books to read (since the author saw the writing on the wall (I’ve been told), and realized that lesbian fiction books just don’t sell enough copies)).

For those looking for romance – look elsewhere; for those looking for graphic depictions of a sexual nature – there is some sex, though not very explicit and not much of it. For those looking for a fun exciting action packed thrilling adventure . . . they might find it here depending on what ‘they’ mean by those words. This is a good spy thriller.

November 25 2016




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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

The Providence File by Amanda Kyle Williams

The Providence File
by Amanda Kyle Williams
Pages: 246
Date: January 1 1991
Publisher: Naiad Press
Series: Madison McGurie (2nd in series)

Review
Rating: 4.25
Read: September 7 to 15 2016

I rather enjoyed this one (though using the word 'enjoyed' about a terrorist book seems . . . wrong), slightly more so than the previous book in the series.

The previous book was set in 1978 (though published in 1990), and this book here is . . . no clue. That's the one main problem I had with this book. No specific date was given, and the date hints were all over the place.

The first date hint was a terrorist and mention that he has been in Ireland for the last ten years. His name seemed vaguely familiar (there was one middle eastern guy who he might have been from prior book, though I suspect they weren't actually the same person). If that had been the same guy, then that 'has spent the last ten years hiding in Ireland' would have been a huge hint - and would have made a certain amount of sense. Since the main character was in a perfect position to take a longish break after the prior book. So that would put the date around 1988. (note, some of the information from that section was later seen to be either wrong or misread by me - like the part where they guy had been there all that time - no, he travels around as well, he does not just stay in that specific location in Ireland, like it seemed to imply).

Second date hint - New CIA director left active field service in 1957. Did a few things behind the desk and the like. Got noticed by new president, made CIA director. So . . um . . 1958, 1960? Wait no - he is given freer hand like in 1950s, unlike the 1970s; so this is 1980s.

Third date hint comes form Madison (main character). It's a year later. So 1979. But . . but previos date hint said that we were out of the 1970s. mmphs.

Fourth date hint - some big shot trrorist did something huge in 1985 - relayed in a 'this was some significant time ago' way (well, I mean at least a year or 5). So . . .1988?

What bloody year are we in?

Right, so. Story. Madison is talked into doing a mission. By taking it, it implodes her current relationship. Her mission is to go undercover in the Providence terrorist group. Who are working to 'free the Palestine people'.

The book was actually a lot more detailed, action packed, and filled with spy-stuff than I somewhat expected. Quite enjoyabe. I put it on my 4.25 shelf, which is probably close-ish to correct. Maybe if I had more shelves, I'd put it closer to 4.35.

September 17 2016

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.