The Envoy
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Product Description
Kate Saunders, The Times, 7 March 2008
...a glorious seething broth of historical fact and old-fashioned spy story.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Susanna Yager, Sunday Telegraph
...a sophisticated, convincing novel that shows governments and their secret services as cynically exploitative and utterly ruthless.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
Mice, thought Kit. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Mice, thought Kit. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I met Edward Wilson at his book signing in Aldeburgh. I knew nothing of his work, but his hint that he'd written a post Le Carre spy novel persuaded me to buy his book, and I'm so glad that I did. His account of the US's attempts to demolish Britain's fantasies of still having an empire, preventing the development of a British H-bomb but needing the territory as a base for nuclear assault or retaliation on Russia is as devastating as it is plausible. Dirty tricks abound and the protagonist (not exactly a hero!) Kit Fournier is no stranger to them. The story mainly moves between London and Suffolk (where Kit's glamorous, if kinky, cousin lives with her husband, a research scientist in Orford Ness) and both settings are admirably realised. I could hardly hope for a happy ending, but - well, I'll say no more except that Wilson transcends Le Carre in his cynicism! Masterly!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is one of the best spy stories I have read in years. Set in the mid-1950s when the Cold War as at its height and Britain was humiliated over Suez, the book charts the cynical way in which - so the plot has it - the US sought to undermine Britain's attempt to pursue its goals of independent foreign policy, so as to make it possible for the US to station nuclear weapons on UK soil. Even if you think that the Soviet threat to the West was as serious as some Cold War hawks said it was - and I actually side with the hawks - Wilson's plot has lots of convincing detail.
As a person born near the Suffolk coast who was raised there and learned to sail boats in places such as the Orwell estuary, Woodbridge, Aldeburgh and further south, I loved the local details that were woven in to the plot. You can almost smell the mudflats.
I get the impression that the author is a man of fairly strong left/liberal views but he refrains, mostly, from ramming these down the reader's throat and he never quite falls into the trap of making out that somehow the NATO allies were "just as bad" as the former Soviet Empire. Only once or twice did I find the political tone of this book a bit grating. After all, when all is said and done, what Ronald Reagan called the "Evil Empire", with the Gulag, was indeed evil. But there can also be no doubting that the spying activities on all sides in that era were dirty; Britain was not above dropping its NATO allies into trouble, and vice-versa. I thought Wilson's portrayal of J.F Dulles was particularly chilling.
If you like Le Carre or Len Deighton, you will like this book a lot.
As a person born near the Suffolk coast who was raised there and learned to sail boats in places such as the Orwell estuary, Woodbridge, Aldeburgh and further south, I loved the local details that were woven in to the plot. You can almost smell the mudflats.
I get the impression that the author is a man of fairly strong left/liberal views but he refrains, mostly, from ramming these down the reader's throat and he never quite falls into the trap of making out that somehow the NATO allies were "just as bad" as the former Soviet Empire. Only once or twice did I find the political tone of this book a bit grating. After all, when all is said and done, what Ronald Reagan called the "Evil Empire", with the Gulag, was indeed evil. But there can also be no doubting that the spying activities on all sides in that era were dirty; Britain was not above dropping its NATO allies into trouble, and vice-versa. I thought Wilson's portrayal of J.F Dulles was particularly chilling.
If you like Le Carre or Len Deighton, you will like this book a lot.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Edward Wilson's second novel is a gripping spy story set in 1950s Britain, in the genre of Graham Greene and John Le Carre. Like Wilson's first novel, "A River in May", it is extremely well written, and the combination of story line, excellent characterisation, scene-setting and style make it difficult to put down. But whereas "A River in May" recounts the often very disturbing experiences of an American in the Vietnam War, "The Envoy" - though not without a few fairly gruesome scenes - is the generally more entertaining tale of a US diplomat cum secret agent and his encounters with his American bosses, British hosts and Russian counterparts.
Highly recommended - a very good read.
Highly recommended - a very good read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Intriguing...
Edward Wilson weaves the gripping, near psychological, thriller that focuses on the personal angst of the CIA's London Chief of Station as, in the late 1950s, the US, the UK and... Read more
Published 22 days ago by T. D. Dawson
Portrait of the career spy
Kit Fournier is a senior spy in 1950s London whose mission is to further American interests by wrecking Britain's relations with Russia, preventing her acquiring the H-Bomb, and... Read more
Published 2 months ago by schlockhorror
When Britain no longer ruled the waves
Why isn't Edward Wilson better known? His books are well written and occupy much the same territory as John le Carre yet he remains relatively unknown. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mr. Edward R. Addison
A GREAT tool
The best neatest tool I have had ....... .. .. .. ... ... .. .. .. ... .. .. .. ........................
ALAN
ALAN
Published 5 months ago by Alan Lindsay
Pacey second half
A few slips mar this book and jar the narrative -- do female cellists habitually wear blood-red nail varnish? did Sealink ferries really exist under that name in 1956? Read more
Published on 1 Mar 2009 by Barton Keyes
Allies spying on each other
Just when you think you have read every type of espionage story, another one comes along that has a different slant to it. Read more
Published on 18 April 2008 by Chris Rawlings
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