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Spy's Life: A Novel
  
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Spy's Life: A Novel (Hardcover)

by Henry Porter (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 390 pages
  • Publisher: Diane Pub Co (May 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0756779421
  • ISBN-13: 978-0756779429
  • Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.7 x 3.3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Henry Porter's A Spy's Life surpasses even its predecessor Remembrance Day, which achieved an unprecedented amount of enthusiastic word of mouth. Here, he brilliantly blends the thriller elements into a bizarre and surrealistic narrative that constantly surprises the reader.

A massive air crash in New York kills 19 people, most of them working for the United Nations. The only survivor is a British ex-spy, Robert Harland. After a traumatic encounter with torture in Czechoslovakia during the Velvet Revolution, he is now working for the UN in a low-key, non-espionage role. Anyone familiar with the genre will know that attempts to retire from the spy trade are always doomed to failure, and Harland's freak survival of the plane crash soon makes him public property again. The FBI and other shadowy forces are keen to find out what he was doing on the plane. And as Harland speedily finds himself in lethal situations again, his life is further complicated by the appearance of a young man claiming to be his son by Eva, a young Czech agent with whom Harland was in love. With a mass murderer called Viktor Lipnik figuring into the equation, the reader is quickly beguiled by the kind of highly dangerous pyrotechnics that distinguished John le Carré's early books. In fact, the influence of le Carré's finest book, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, is evident here, and it's a measure of Porter's success that he is more than able to hold his own in this august company. --Barry Forshaw --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

Robert Cope Harland ended his career as a British spy in an Austrian hospital, after being tortured and beaten by Czech security agents in the last days of the communist regime. He was young enough then to find a new life with the Red Cross and then with the UN. Twelve years later his UN plane crashes in mysterious circumstances at La Guardia airport, New York and Harland is the only survivor. Was it sabotage, and if so, was Harland the target? It is soon clear to Harland that the answers are to be found in his past, a past which, along with its secrets and tradecraft, he has desperately tried to forget. And now the crash has thrown him back into a world of relentless intrigue and mistrust, to his youth, and a life-changing love affair . . . 'A taut new thriller about international espionage . . . Deftly orchestrating a byzantine plot and a multinational cast of characters, Porter creates a chilling global masquerade in which no one is who he (or she) pretends to be' VANITY FAIR --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews

28 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (28 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars coming of age, 24 Nov 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: A Spy's Life (Hardcover)
I felt Henry Porter showed great promise in his first book but tried too hard to fit into the formulae of a thriller per se. Here he comes of age. He writes with authority and verve and great compassion about pressing matters that affect us all, namely war crimes, justice and the nature of Humanity. In a thriller it is unusual to find such matters addressed with such important intellect but Mr Porter pulls it off! I read this book in three 'sittings' pausing only to walk and muse upon Man's Inhumanity to his Fellow Man. What greater tribute could a reader pay to an author.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Tour de force!, 9 Aug 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: A Spy's Life (Hardcover)
Having greatly enjoyed Mr. Porter's previous book I could not wait for his second. I arranged a stopover in London on a business journey from my home in Madrid to Dublin to purchase his book.I spent the entire night in my hotel suite devouring it! The review by your Amazon reviewer is correct.This is a mighty work. Twisting and turning it gripped me from start to finish! From the shady world of spying in the old Europe Porter leaps forward to the new Europe of massacres in the Balkans. My only dispute with the Amazon critic is that I do not see echoes of Mr. le Carre. Mr. Porter reminds me more of the great Len Deighton because he writes so clearly and this is a boon for someone for whom English is not the main language. I intend to read the book again and cannot wait for Mr. Porter to light up other pressing issues of our era.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Not Le Carre's class, 28 Feb 2006
By A Customer
This review is from: A Spy's Life (Paperback)
He's good but not yet great, but then, I've read only his first two books and have noted the improvement in A Spy's Life. Porter is a strong writer who creates believable characters and page-turning plots. There are caveats, which is why he gets 4 stars (3 1/2, really, but 3 seemed too low). First of all, the relationships between the characters and various agencies gets so convoluted it becomes difficult at times to remember who's working for whom and why. Second, there comes a time (or two or more) in each book when somebody does something really weird (such as, insisting on accompanying the protagonist somewhere for seemingly no good reason)and the otherwise very intelligent protagonist never seems to find this especially strange or, if he does, he quickly and not very believably shrugs off his misgivings. And, last, Porter still hasn't found a way to slip in his always-extensive "back story," so there's always a point where some character says to the protagonist something like, "Remember back in '89 in Prague, when you and I...blah...blah..blah" and then goes on for page after page of exposition in a really silly monologue that couldn't be more obvious if said character had prefaced his speech by saying, "Time out, old chap, while I explain a few bits for the readers." Happily, Porter is already so good in other ways that this isn't as annoying as it sounds, though it always somewhat breaks the spell. However, I look forward to Empire State and Brandenberg and do think he could be the new Le Carre, especially as Le Carre has become a bit of a bore these days. And, considering that some people actually consider Dan Brown a good writer, Porter deserves about 7 stars.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars The Heir of Robert Goddard
Like Goddard in his early years (his latest books have been virtually unreadable), Porter creates real pageturners with convoluted plots, peopled with two-dimensional characters... Read more
Published 1 month ago by S. B. Kelly

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent read
This is a terrific, gripping yarn, from its dramatic beginning as Robert Harland fights for his life after a plane crash in the East River, right to the last nail-biting page. Read more
Published on 28 Dec 2006 by Sophie Masson

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT SPY NOVEL,S CAN WRITTEN WITHOUT THE WALL
Henry Porter's first novel was very good; this is even better. In it he successfully continues and renews a genre which looked as if it had been killed by the end of the Cold War... Read more
Published on 28 Sep 2003 by David Blake

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
This is the best spy thriller I've read since "The Spy Who Camer In From The Cold." Beautifully plotted, not only is it exciting but draws the reader in emotionally... Read more
Published on 7 July 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars Well written and great entertainment
An extremely well written and enteratining book, with complex characters well described - I read it in two sessions - with only the need to sleep stopping me from doing it in one!
Published on 2 April 2002

3.0 out of 5 stars An above-average thriller
Robert Harland - an ex spy - is flung from a crashing plane, and so begins a tale of intrigue and espionage, culminating in the search for a war criminal. Read more
Published on 18 Mar 2002 by B. Ukiah

4.0 out of 5 stars Fast and furious
This book is well-written; it also moves at great pace and the reader is dragged in from the outset. Read more
Published on 28 Feb 2002 by johnverp

5.0 out of 5 stars the new jack higgins
this is a rip roaring book. as a lifelong fan of jack higgins i never thought i would find someone as good as him but i have. Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars wow!
i really enjoyed this book. it has everything. political intrigue. loads of action. strong characters. Read more
Published on 4 Jan 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars the new pepys
Even as I write this I suspect, nay hope, Mr Porter is writing a new novel to illuminate what is really happening in the Near East of Afghanistan. Read more
Published on 17 Dec 2001

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