"The Envoy", Edward Wilson's second novel, will prove familiar territory for fans on "A River in May". The setting is 1950s London, at the height of the Cold War. Kit Fournier is ostensibly a senior diplomat at the US embassy in Grosvenor Square who is also CIA Chief of Station. With the arms race looming large Kit goes undercover to meet with his KGB counterpart to pass on secret information about British spies. In a world where truth means deception and love means honey trap, sexual blackmail and personal betrayal are essential skills. As a H-bomb apocalypse hangs over London, Kit Fournier faces a crisis of the soul. The unveiling of his own dark personal secret proves more deadly than his coded dispatches. This sophisticated novel will have you turning pages until its gripping denouement.
The precursor to [b:The Darkling Spy|7662409|The Darkling Spy|Edward Wilson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348033465s/7662409.jpg|10254017]. Kit Fournier is a career spy for the United States, stationed in Britain. Hopelessly in love with his married cousin Jennie, chasing the trail of a nuclear weapon in Britain, and badly compromised by the Soviets. Kit crosses paths with many non-fictional characters from the firmanent of American and British cold war leaders. (Were brothers John Foster Dulles (Secretary of State for Eisenhower) and Allen Dulles (first CIA director) - really such creeps? ).
The Envoy is tightly plotted and well written. If you like your espionage books cut from the John Le Carre cloth - everyone compromised, no clear sense of who the "good guys" are, or whether such a thing even exists - then you'll enjoy The Envoy.
