The plot begins in March through to November 1963. Gabriel Dax is a travel writer and ‘accidental spy’ for MI6 and we follow his travels from Claverleigh East Sussex Guatemala City New York The Cotswolds London. Gabriel has a fixation for Faith Green, his MI6 handler and is a little in love with her. Gabriel is unsure whether he wants to work for MI6 anymore but definitely likes the money he is paid. Faith’s character development was good and I liked her as the book progressed. Gabriel uses his employment as a travel writer, as a cover for his MI6 jobs and finds himself in lots of dangerous situations. Gabriel is young, smart, witty but a little naive at times. Boyd’s use of vocabulary is excellent and it is peppered with witty dialogue. The book has lots of descriptive and clever writing which is well researched. I give 4 stars and would recommend this book.

In The Predicament, William Boyd follows on directly from last year’s Gabriel’s Moon, now out in paperback. Gabriel Dax is still MI6’s somewhat reluctant useful idiot, whose day job as a travel writer provides the perfect cover for visits to Guatemala and Berlin. Also returning are his enigmatic handler Faith Green and art dealer uncle. We’re entertained by the dramatic irony of JFK’s visit to Berlin: of course we all know that he was shot from a high vantage point above Deeley Plaza but these guys are living in a pre-Dallas world. I recommend The Predicament if you fancy reading a Cold War-era thriller whose protagonist is an accidental spy increasingly drawn into the shadows and lies of espionage. Thanks to Penguin for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley.

It is 1963 and Gabriel Dax is an eminent writer of enigmatic and idiosyncratic Travel books. He also works for MI6 as a double agent and a field agent. He loves being a writer and hates being a spy, but he can’t get out of the latter because he is essentially trapped in the system. It isn’t all bad, however, because he gets paid by the Soviets who think he’s on their side, and gets expenses for overseas trips on behalf of 6, while getting material for his best-selling books. He is in Love with his boss, Faith Brown, who might reciprocate, and is supplying carefully curated and approved information about her to the Soviets. His latest task is to go to Guatemala in his ‘journalist’ persona to interview a charismatic, socialist priest who looks as if he might be the next Presidente. The CIA and The United Fruit Company are also interested. Following this trip he is sent to Berlin. It is the height of the Cold War, of course, and he is to work with the CIA, leading to him becoming a temporary agent for them in the build up to the visit of US President, John F Kennedy (and the famous “Ich Bien A Berliner” speech). This is a sequel to Gabriel’s Moon but works on its own. The writing is very powerful and the integration into the real history of the time, both in Guatemala and in Berlin, is seamless, as is the general air of life in England when he is being himself at home in London or Sussex. The plot is not hard to resolve, but is intriguing because of that realism. These fictional events might have happened just like this, because espionage is, by definition, unrecorded – note that MI6 is more properly called SIS: Secret Intelligence Service. As for our hero, he is a very believable guy, but on the face of it rather mild mannered, unlike the typical spy of a sixties novel. So an agreeable, and quite literate, read, and a gentle thriller. I look forward to what, I’m sure, will be the third book in the series.