Dead Spy Running Book

A relatively new publishing imprint can always use a few winners to achieve lift-off; new publishing kid on the block Blue Door must be rubbing their hands, as the auguries are very promising for Jon Stock’s highly impressive Dead Spy Running. The book arrives emblazoned with raves from the likes of Lee Child and Robert Goddard – hinting to the reader that both action and storytelling will push all the requisite buttons.Daniel Marchant is an inactive MI9 operative. Rather than languishing in torpor, he has decided to run the London Marathon. But the dangers of his ex-day job are not far away – one of the other competitors is lethally strapped with explosives, and if he reduces his pace, all around him will die bloodily. Marchant does his best to avert the slaughter, but there are those who think that he is compromised in his professional life. The CIA ensured that Marchant’s father was removed from his position as head of MI6, and they are convinced that the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree. Marchant finds himself treated like a suspected terrorist (extraordinary rendition, waterboarding), and things look very black for him. But there are people who are not against him: Marchant’s colleague (and inamorata) Leila. And, more importantly, new Intelligence chief Sir Marcus Fielding, who is suspicious of America’s apparently unshakeable grip over UK foreign policy.The opening premise (don’t drop below a certain pace or risk detonation) may be borrowed from the movie Speed, but that’s the only element here that doesn’t come up as fresh as paint; Jon Stock has taken the accoutrements of the espionage thriller and given them a bracing wash and rinse. The real achieve, however, is to marry the kinetic energy of the Jason Bourne franchise (that’s the films, rather than Ludlum’s books) with the political sophistication and dyspeptic view of international relations of John le Carré and Gerald Seymour. The publisher Blue Door has a potential bestseller in Dead Spy Running. --Barry ForshawRead More