Blackford Oakes, Book 4
I’m kind of a sucker for Soviet-era spy novels (as long as they’re not 6,000 pages long like most of John Le’Carre‘s books). I recently came upon this book by William F. Buckley and found the back-cover synopsis intriguing.
Little did I know, though, that the book is actually the fourth installment of a series about the protagonist-spy, Blackford Oakes. Had I known that, I probably would have held off until I could try out the first. Nevertheless, I read through this book, really enjoyed it, and plan to look up more from the 11-book (I believe) series.
The plot of this one is set in 1957 while the Soviets and Americans are in a head-to-head race to launch history’s first satellite. Blackford Oakes, a CIA operative, is tasked with kidnapping a Russian scientist and gaining from him as many secrets as possible before Moscow catches too much wind. Along the way, he must also work through some of the serious guilt he feels for having earlier failed a young operative.
All this suspenseful drama adds up to a thriller that has several fulcrums: it attempts to balance emotion without capsizing into melodrama, intrigue that maintains historical accuracy, and characters that can’t appear to be fiction. I think Buckley does an exceptional job at maintaining a healthy equilibrium in all three areas, which is why I’ll be searching our more of these fascinating spy thrillers!
As for content, there’s one character only who’s got a filthy mouth (I’m sure he’s a recurring, larger-than-life Texan that I’ll be seeing again). There’s also a singular sex scene. I’m not entirely sure of Oakes’ relational status, but he barely knows the girl. Readers may want to be wary of that.
All in all, I think this was a much more believable character and scenario than I ever had with Dirk Pitt (who hails from the same era). I’m impressed with Buckley as a fiction writer and look forward to reading him again. I’ve already got Book 1: Saving the Queen on standby, so it looks like I’m starting something new…only about 45 years too late!
©2023 E.T.