Genre: Thriller
Description:
The
Amazon entry describes it thus:
“In a last ditch effort to revive his career, washed out agent Ari
Ben-Sion accepts a mission he never would have 30 years ago, to smuggle a group
of Jewish children out of the Damascus ghetto. Or so he thinks.
In Damascus, a beautiful American photographer, Kim, seems to be
falling in love with Ari, but she is asking too many questions. His communication equipment disappears. His contact never shows up. The operation is
only hours away and everything seems awry. Desperate to succeed, Ari might risk
everything. Even his life.
Feature film Damascus Cover in theaters 2016 starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Sir John Hurt.”
In the new introduction to this edition the author tells us that in
its first incarnation, in 1977, this novel sat in the lower reaches of the Los
Angeles Times best seller list for 10 weeks. This reissue, self-published by
Howard Kaplan in 2014, has obviously been put out to tie in with the
forthcoming film, now apparently due in 2017.
Author:
Howard Kaplan doesn’t seem to have a
website, although he is on Facebook and Twitter. For present purposes, perhaps
the most important thing to know about him is that he has a little experience
of being a spy and a lot of knowledge about the Middle East. He has lived in
Israel and traveled extensively through Lebanon, Syria and Egypt. He knows the
life of which he writes.
Appraisal:
This is an excellent spy thriller. Authors
are so often recommended by publishers as ‘the next John Le Carré’. None of
them are, of course. And attempts at comparison simply weaken the writing of
those who are not. However, Kaplan is (or was), writing gritty spy fiction
which stands genuine comparison with Le Carré circa The spy who came in from
the cold.
I pride myself on being able to spot a plot
twist even if it is secreted in a bag of fettuccini, but this book wrong-footed
me not once, not twice but thrice. I like to be wrong-footed. Nor did those
cunning plot twists feel remotely strained: as soon as the unexpected occurred
one could see how it was the inevitable result of what had come before. Thus
the book quickly gained a sense of menace: what has Ari missed? How will it
come back to bite him? The spy-protagonist is no two-dimensional cipher: the
reader goes with him into the abyss created by his own character failings,
spiralling down and down, as shown through the action of the book.
The settings are Cyprus, Jerusalem and Syria
– economically and vividly drawn. The Middle Eastern setting are topical
(despite the book’s age). Aleppo, Beirut and, of course, Damascus all figure
largely and are described at a time when they were still beautiful,
multi-cultural cities.
The new introduction gives some insight into
what has occurred in the Middle East since 1977, but it is not really
sufficient for those of us whose knowledge of Middle Eastern politics and wars
since 1948 may not be deep or recent. To enjoy this fully it will repay a quick
and dirty Google of the main dates and conflicts in the area (there are quite a
few) so as to have at least The Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War clear in
your mind. This link may be of assistance.
Buy now from: Amazon US Amazon UK
FYI:
The prologue and final chapter comprise graphic scenes of torture.
The original review posted on December 14, 2016.
Format/Typo
Issues:
There are a few typos which could have been put right when the text
was readied for printing this time around. Or perhaps they were introduced at
that point – who can say. They will not spoil your enjoyment.
Rating: *****
Five Stars
Reviewed
by: Judi Moore
Approximate word count: 65-70,000 words
1 comment:
If you enjoyed this excellent and informative review of Howard Kaplan's Damascus Cover you are going to love this non-promotional anecdote about real spies and authors from the espionage genre whether you’re a le Carré connoisseur, a Deighton disciple, a Fleming fanatic, a Herron hireling or a Macintyre marauder and If you don't love all such things you might learn something so read on!
There is one category of secret agent that is often overlooked … namely those who don’t know they have been recruited. For more on that topic we suggest you read Beyond Enkription (explained below) and this very current article on that topic by the ex-spook Bill Fairclough. The article can be found at TheBurlingtonFiles.org website in the News Section. The article (dated July 21, 2021) is about “Russian Interference”; it’s been read over 20,000 times. Anyway, since you seem to be interested in all things espionage we guess you’re interested in Oleg Gordievsky, so this anecdote should make for compulsory reading.
John le Carré described Ben Macintyre’s fact based novel, The Spy and The Traitor, as “the best true spy story I have ever read”. It was about Kim Philby’s Russian counterpart, a KGB Colonel named Oleg Gordievsky, codename Sunbeam. In 1974 Gordievsky became a double agent working for MI6 in Copenhagen which was when Bill Fairclough aka Edward Burlington unwittingly launched his career as a secret agent for MI6. Fairclough and le Carré knew of each other: le Carré had even rejected Fairclough’s suggestion in 2014 that they collaborate on a book. As le Carré said at the time, “Why should I? I’ve got by so far without collaboration so why bother now?” A realistic response from a famous expert in fiction in his eighties!
Gordievsky never met Fairclough, but he did know Fairclough’s handler, Colonel Alan McKenzie aka Colonel Alan Pemberton. It is little wonder therefore that in Beyond Enkription, the first fact based novel in The Burlington Files espionage series, genuine double agents, disinformation and deception weave wondrously within the relentless twists and turns of evolving events. Beyond Enkription is set in 1974 in London, Nassau and Port au Prince. Edward Burlington, a far from boring accountant, unwittingly started working for Alan McKenzie in MI6 and later worked eyes wide open for the CIA.
What happens is so exhilarating and bone chilling it makes one wonder why bother reading espionage fiction when facts are so much more breathtaking. The fact based novel begs the question, were his covert activities in Haiti a prelude to the abortion of a CIA sponsored Haitian equivalent to the Cuban Bay of Pigs? Why was his father Dr Richard Fairclough, ex MI1, involved? Richard was of course a confidant of British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, who became chief adviser to JFK during the Cuban missile crisis.
Len Deighton and Mick Herron could be forgiven for thinking they co-wrote the raw noir anti-Bond narrative, Beyond Enkription. Atmospherically it’s reminiscent of Ted Lewis’ Get Carter of Michael Caine fame. If anyone ever makes a film based on Beyond Enkription they’ll only have themselves to blame if it doesn’t go down in history as a classic espionage thriller.
By the way, the maverick Bill Fairclough had quite a lot in common with Greville Wynne (famous for his part in helping to reveal Russian missile deployment in Cuba in 1962) and has also even been called “a posh Harry Palmer”. As already noted, Bill Fairclough and John le Carré (aka David Cornwell) knew of each other but only long after Cornwell’s MI6 career ended thanks to Kim Philby. Coincidentally, the novelist Graham Greene used to work in MI6 reporting to Philby and Bill Fairclough actually stayed in Hôtel Oloffson during a covert op in Haiti (explained in Beyond Enkription) which was at the heart of Graham Greene’s spy novel The Comedians. Funny it’s such a small world!
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