It’s not too often that an author in the trade for three decades saves his greatest novel for last, but I’ve now read five of Lionel Davidson‘s eight adult-focused novels, and I think he might have done just that. Kolymsky Heights is every bit as intricate a story as the other works Davidson had produced—beginning with The Night of Wenceslas in 1960—and yet the suspense is on another level entirely.

I first came across Davidson when I found The Rose of Tibet in a used bookstore. I’d visited Tibet and wanted to try out this spy-looking romance novel from 1962. I was pleasantly entertained!

I followed this with The Night of Wenceslas, which, as an earlier work, was a bit weaker yet still entailed a cleverly original plot that kept me reading into the night. The Sun Chemist (1976) came next, and proved to be far less thrilling than the rest, yet put Davidson’s penchant for intricacy of detail on brilliant display—who knew that researching old journals could be so exciting?

Next came another wildly unique story that touched on ethic diversity and enmity in the modern Middle East, Smith’s Gazelle (1971). My copy of this book fell apart in my hands as I read it, so that I’d constantly be throwing away pieces I’d finished until I had nothing left but the last chapter and the binding. As I read it, I felt like my understanding of Mid-Eastern politics was falling apart as well, which was a good thing. That book stands out in my memory more than all the others.

But then came this book, Davidson’s final full-length novel (though he apparently died 15 years later, in 2009). This story is not your average spy novel. No special devices. No barely human feats of strength. No back-alley kick-fighting scenes from a guy in a suit. Johnny Porter, a native of Earth’s northern regions gifted in language, painstakingly transforms himself into a number of characters as he seeks entrance into Russia’s Siberian provinces in order to answer a secret message sent to him from a man in his past in a location of which the world is unaware.

I’ve never read an author who writes in the style that Lionel Davidson has mastered: it’s never overly wordy, yet it’s so intricately detailed and methodic that one finds he’s gone forty pages to find out how Johnny—now transformed into a Korean sailor—moves from a ship in the Northern Pacific to a hospital in northern Russia. On hearing that, you may think the story sluggish, but when you read it, it just ain’t! In this regard, he reminds me of the action-version of James Michener.

It took about three-quarters of the book for Porter finally to get to the meat of the plot. Everything leading up to it justified logically his ability to do so. And once we get to the core of that ploy, boy, it’s quite a shocker. Almost too much of a shocker, actually, yet by that point I was so deep into the story, I was fine to suspend reality for a bit.

This one contains tons of Russian and Inuit names to slough through, so be aware of that. I don’t think I can recall hardly any of the other names in the book, simply because I couldn’t pronounce them when I read them, so they never stuck with me for very long. Still, I think this is Davidson’s best book of them all, though I still have a few others to try.

©2021 E.T.

Read More from Lionel Davidson:

• Adult Novels:
  The Night of Wenceslas (1960)
  The Rose of Tibet (1962)
  The Menorah Men (UK title: A Long Way to Shiloh, 1966)
  Making Good Again (1968)
  Smith’s Gazelle (1971)
  The Sun Chemist (1976)
  Murder Games (UK title: The Chelsea Murders, 1978)
  Kolymsky Heights (1994)
• Youth Books:
  Soldier and Me (UK title: Run for Your Life, 1965, as David Line)
  Mike and Me (1974, as David Line)
  Under Plum Lake (1980 )
  Screaming High (1985, as David Line)