Alex Gerlis Interview

Alex Gerlis granted me the opportunity to ask him some questions following the release of his most recent book CITY OF TRAITORS which I reviewed last month. The book is the third book in the Double Agent series - released by Canelo - and it will reach it's thrilling finally next year.

This is the third book of the series, what was the original genesis of this series?

I wanted to cover a sweep of European history - from Stalin's purges and the rise of the Nazis in the 1930s, the Second World War, the start of the Cold War and the events of 1956

- The book is so well researched, do you enjoy research?

I do yes - and I also find that the research throws up interesting plot and storylines

- Do you like to travel as much as Charles Cooper?

I enjoy travelling, yes - perhaps not in the same way as Cooper and certainly not in clandestine circumstances but I like to visit the key locations covered in my books.

- Was this all plotted out and meant to be a four part series from the outset?

yes, I always envisaged this as a four-part series and I had a sense of what period and - to an extent - what events would be covered in each book and I also had an idea of how it would end. I've actually just written the end of the final book and it's far closer to the original ending I had in mind than I'd have expected. I like a book to develop and evolve as I'm writing it, but with a series you do have to be a bit more disciplined.

- The series has grown as it's gone on, from London to Europe to now America, was that deliberate?

Yes, I like the idea of including different countries. America was always part of the plan - it works with the plot.

- What is your typical writing day?

There's no absolutely typical writing day, I don't have a strict routine in that sense but I do try to write in the mornings and then from mid/late afternoon for 2/3 hours - but I often work around whatever else is going on in my life.  

- What spy books are you reading at the moment? Any recommendations?

Icarus 17 by Charles Cumming and Appointment in PAris by Jane Thynee. Both very good.

City of Traitors is out now from Canelo on all formats. 

City of Traitors - Alex Gerlis

 

Third part of British spy series set amidst the end of WW2

Alex Gerlis is a prolific British spy thriller author, who has hit gold with this series he has christened the Double Agent series. 

As the end of the Second World War in Europe looms, a new conflict is in its early stages: who will control Europe when the war ends?

Soviet double-agent 'Archie' is now a British diplomat in the United States, feeding information on the Special Relationship back to Moscow Centre. Meanwhile, erstwhile Soviet agent 'Bertie' – Charles Cooper – is sent on a perilous mission to Italy before being drawn towards Berlin as the Allies draw near their goal.

Gerlis takes pride in his research and it pays off. As Archie travels to America's capital to obtain delicate information about the production of the nuclear bomb and the Manhattan project for his Soviet leaders; Bertie is up against it in the Italian Alps.

The zig-zag and whipcrack nature of the chase of both men is exhilarating and the book does culminate in quite a gripping finale. The pay off of all pay offs we hope will appear in the fourth book which takes place during the height of the Cold War in the 1950s when we discover true identities.

There is a real joy to imagine these places; as a well travelled reader I have travelled to America numerous times but never DC and a lot of Europe remains a mystery to me but this book along with a recent Simon Michael novel set in France has made me want to venture out to the continent and visit our neighbours by train or plane. Much like Charles Cooper did in the first book Every Spy A Traitor.

The moments for Charles/Bertie in Berlin are so gripping as he recovers culminating in a climatic showdown where he saves his own skin yet the pace of writing by Gerlis coupled with that attention to detail of period and place makes for a riveting read.

The credit that must be extended to Gerlis is that as the scope of his Double Agents has grown across the series with locations getting further away from the centre of London to Cambridge to Europe to North America, Gerlis has not been overawed by this expansion of horizons and his characters have reflected him in taking it all in his stride. 

City of Traitors is out from Canelo on Thursday 13th August on all formats.

Bridge of Sighs - Ken Lussey

Brand new adventure yarn from Ken Lussey

Out from Arachnid Press, Ken Lussey returns with the fourth book in the series featuring Callum Anderson and his now wife, Jenny as they investigate another murder mystery in the Scottish Highlands.

The book starts five decades previously as a light aircraft takes off and does not return, crashing into the sea with no pilot accounted for. Meanwhile, someone is attempting to stop developers working on the Sutherland Viking Haven with unexplained damage occurring along the North Coast 500.

Events turn sinister as a body is found in a burn-out Inverness shop, and when another killing takes place the risks take place closer to home for the inquisitive pair.

Lussey came to this reader's prominence with his WW2 RAF tales featuring Bob Sutherland and his femme fatale Monique DuBois. Again Lussey has a married couple at the forefront of his work (a sign of a happily married gent), and this allows the pair to bring strengths to the party and we enjoy their partnership both professionally and romantically.

Not to say they do not come with baggage; Jenny is a recovering alcoholic with two daughters who are attempting to find their feet in the world. Callum is a divorced man himself, and so he is wary of making the same mistakes a second time around.

That is a theme running throughout the book, second chances and history repeating. The same developers who hope to profit from ruining a Viking Haven are ironically not much different from the pillaging Viking warriors before them, whereas they hide behind laws and suits as opposed to horned helmets.

As ever, Lussey paints a lovely picture of the Scottish Landscape which at times makes this read like the best Scottish travelogue with details of roads to travel and places to stop with nods to history and social context. 

While this book may not reach the heights of previous books in the series notably last year's Thicker Than Water, it nevertheless is a welcome return to the now married Anderson clan.

Bridge of Sighs is available on all formats now from Arachnid Press 

What The Dying See - MJ Lee

Book Twelve in the DI Ridpath series by MJ Lee out 2nd July

I have read all the Ridpath books by the most esteemable MJ Lee. Each book is brisk, pacy and full of tension - he continually creates a pervading mood of doom amidst the Manchester gloom as Ridpath and his team strain to solve the cases. 

This one might well be one of his best - there is the mixture of personal struggle, corruption and politcking that Ridpath must overcome. Perhaps the ending is a little too neat, but it serves again as a reminder that this is one of the most consistent series of recent years and hardly anybody I know in my reading circles know about it. This remains a crime itself that this work has not garnered the wider audience it deserves.

Lee is a neat concise writer; he uses social history for context of the fictional crimes he creates, and yet he is also challenging the governmental structures in place that batter and marginalise the ageing and elderly population of our country. The notion or idea of a second Shipman imbues throughout the book, that fear of the vulnerable being attacked. At times, this reader got angry when reading and rightly so, the elderly should always have our respect and live with dignity.

Those who have given so much in their lives to live are getting forgotten by middle management. In this book, the criminal works for the Department of Work and Pensions, the DWP become this eerie complicit being in destroying people who through circumstance seek to continue working but either through ill will or bad luck they find themselves alone with no support structure, except the benefit cheque that someone behind a desk thinks they do not deserve. Lee has taken his agenda and made a constructive point of satirising or challenging the government to change the ways. 

As ever, the geography and painting of Manchester as this gothic and yet burgeoning metropolis is done effectively - set around late November/early December he evokes weather and mood, the harshness of the rain sheeting upon our characters. 

Lee balances Ridpath's bridging the dual roles he has between the Greater Manchester Polic (GMP) and reporting to the coroner. The coroner herself has her own problems, with people thinking she should step aside due to an injury sustained two books previously. Ridpath, a single parent following his wife's untimely passing, has a teenage daughter, Eve and while she is not as present as in previous books, Eve is paramount to Ridpath's stability and grounding. 

As mentioned previously, this is one of the better books in the series. Effective, gripping and written with such fluidity perhaps this may be the book to breakout for Lee in this instance. 

What The Dying See is published by Canelo on 2nd July on all formats.

Surviving Earth

Written and directed by Thea Gajic, tells the story of Vlad, a Slovak refugee who fled Yugoslavia during the conflict of the 1990s and settled in Bristol. A talented harmonica player who works as a counsellor, his band 'Balkan Express' are on the verge of success in the local music scene. 

However, past traumas and addictions come back to haunt him threatening the relationships he has strived to build up and threatening the peace he has found in the relationship with his daughter. 

A quite illuminating film experience, a low budget film that is shot beautifully and technically sound - the relationships between Vlad and his band-mates feel authentic, the problems feel realistic. This is a knowing and well written film capably performed by a strong cast led by Slavko Sobin as Vlad and Olive Gray as his daughter, Maria.

The setting of Bristol, a small yet vital city on the outskirts of the big metropolitans, is central to the film's premise with the underground art cultural scene in full flow. The cinematography of Olan Collardy (Rye Lane) makes the small city look picturesque and inviting. 

This is a nuanced film touching upon feelings of insecurity, belonging in a community that is not your own, the ageing man and father in the modern day society. The use of folk music brought up to the present day is symptomatic of the current craving for nostalgia or simpler times in our world amidst the ongoing AI/tech boom that we live in fear of.

Shot with such care and with Vlad reminded us of British archetypes - notably, the angry young man from the 1960s - when ambition and the clamour to be better still resonates in this confusing age. Vlad yearns to be better than himself but he cannot get out of his own way at times and the guilt he feels for fleeing his homeland and not willing to return to see his ageing mother.

Funded by the BFI, distributed by Metis Films this is a film that speaks to the need for stories about the working class and refugee experience in this country. This is a reminder that addiction and insecurity are universal themes, they are not exclusive to the first world, white person experience - problems have a tendency to find you in any walk of life.

Heartfelt and honest, this film will garner a response in all who see it; the only hope is that it finds that audience in cinemas and home release.

Surviving Earth is out on limited release from 24th April.

In Praise Of....Star Wars Sessions

This past Saturday, I had the privilege to attend the first iteration a gathering called Galaxypalooza. A Star Wars fan convention in Rayleigh, Essex that is a con but on by fans for fans. The two men, who do probably Britain's best Star Wars podcast called Star Wars Sessions are Matt Hudson and Luke Bligh. Both live in Essex, and they are impassioned and proud Star Wars fanatics. Their long running podcast has been running for seven years and has over 300 episodes, it has built a devoted following. 

Galaxypalooza was as much a dedication and admiration to the two Essex legends and all they do for the Star Wars community. Both men are humble and genuine in their fandom, they do not attack bad content supplied in the Disney era of George Lucas' vision, they are constructive in criticism but do not fawn when something is good.

There episodes range from covering new releases to video games and books. The main feed podcast was a God send to this writer during the pandemic of 2020 and an appreciation was born. Saturday afforded me the opportunity to say thank you to the guys themselves getting to chat in person along with all their followers.

For me it was a 45 minute journey by car, but for others who I spoke to they travelled by train from Carlisle the day before; car from Northampton on the morning to make a 9am opening. Vendors, artists and merchandise sellers came from Norfolk and Surrey, cosplayers by the dozen came from Kent and Medway.

  

This was a gathering of joy and verve, like minded people all sharing in the wonder of a galaxy far far away. The venue at times felt too small and perhaps next year the clamour for a redo may lead to a larger venue; yet these are mere quibbling points on a day that will be long remembered.

A word now upon the panels which took place in the first floor. Eight different panels took place ranging from Lego builders to fan films and Emmy Award editors to the hosts themselves discussing the Greatest Television show of all time, Andor. The Star Wars Sessions guys themselves spoke to three performers from the series - minor characters but nevertheless, all were hugely grateful for the opportunity to work in something which universally adored.

Surrounding the panel where signers for those autograph hunters. From creature performer, Ross Sambridge to Ross Beadman, who was the youngling Jedi who asks the newly anointed Lord Vader, 'Master Skywalker. What shall we do?' Others have portrayed stormtroopers (Torin Pocock) or Imperial officers (Jonathan Cass) in the two season of Andor. All the guests when interviewed spoke of their own love for the original trilogy, fans one and all.

After a long day of talking and conversing in the ways of the force, it became apparent that while it was goodbye for now, any doubter in the power and reach of Star Wars would have been dismissed as all ages and creeds were present. If you wore a helmet or brandished a lightsaber, all were welcome. And you left safe in the knowledge that if you were at Galaxypalooza on 6th June you departed knowing you had friends everywhere.

Follow Star Wars Sessions here: Star Wars Sessions - Probably Britain's Greatest Star Wars Podcast

Seconds To Midnight - David Orson Newton

 

Taut thriller set in 2029 on the brink of World War 3

Orson Newton's thriller is a page turner in every sense of the word. A brisk unputdownable read with short chapters and a very of the moment narrative.

The year is 2029, Europe is teetering on the brink of war - conscription has been launched in the UK, a storm is coming but from many angles. As the Doomsday clock ticks down, the proximity to catastrophic global disaster is very much on the horizon as the seconds wind down.

The best science fiction always maintains an element of believability and fact - the worry of nuclear holocaust is something that many people have been living with for much of their adult lives (for this reader post-Chernobyl the threat is clear) yet for my parents the Cuban Missile Crisis of twenty plus years earlier was the first alarm.

In this book, British Intelligence launches Operation Iris and Artemis (concurrent timeframe with new Space shuttle programme to the moon), yet the blurring of human instinct and machine intention blur boundaries. At the heart of the operation is Omnia - an artificial superintelligence so advanced it does not answer to its creators.

The fear of AI and how it is slowly seeping into our everyday lives with many of us either submitting or combatting helps with the understanding of the novel's motives. While the machine may have the answers, the humans are the ones who will be held responsible.

Characters are detailed but do not last long in the memory, the most memorable being the mother and her missing/awol soldier son, her interaction with him over a megaphone and her asking him to come out of hiding does stay with you.

However, most characters are conduits for the ultimate message of what is at stake for humanity in the years to come. 

This prescient novel with its real world comments is good read, short bursts of action throughout maintain attention. The tone and message reminded me of the Gold trilogy by David Barker, another novelist that touched upon the next war being about water and the need to inhabit the moon for new resources.

A fascinating and ultimately frightening read, the short sharp chapters reads like a constant warning of what lies ahead for us if we do not change things.

My thanks to Midas PR for the review opportunity and being a part of the blog tour

Seconds to Midnight is released by Chiselbury on April 23rd.