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Padded with irrelevant stuff.

Padded with irrelevant stuff.

David Audley is a reluctant field agent (and lover) when a Second World War Dakota reappears in a drained lake in Lincolnshire in the late 1960s. This event attracts spies in a Cold War drama which has a few intriguing twists and turns. The broad mores of the late 1960s come across but the social and political feel of the age is disappointingly thin, particularly given that Price pitches his contribution at the historical and research end of the spy-genre. The Audley-Faith Steerforth relationship is contrived, plot-wise, and is generally embarrassing, though the latter applies to John Le Carré, as well, and I like most of his novels. Having said as much, and added that Audley’s back-story is not especially persuasive, he is an intriguing hero for a spy novel, and there are many sequels, of which I shall try a couple before deciding whether to keep going. I note an earlier reviewer’s advice that “this is the first book in Price's espionage series about British Intelligence's shadowy "Research and Development" department. It pays to read the books in order of publication - they get more complex as you go along”.

Dated. Thin on character.