Telfair was actually Richard Jessup (1925-1982), an American novelist and screenwriter who wrote crime and adventure fiction as well as spy fiction. Jessup was apparently quite influenced by the existentialists and there are signs of that in this book. I wouldn’t quite call this an existentialist spy novel but I would call it a spy novel with an existentialist tinge. And spy fiction and existentialism are not a bad fit.
Montgomery Nash (known always as Monty) is the first-person narrator. Monty works for a secretive American counter-intelligence agency. The teeth of this agency are it’s two-man Fox pursuit squads. It’s not explicitly stated but it’s implied that they’re more or less US Government assassins.
Monty has just had the bad news that his partner Paul Austin is dead. Worse than that, Austin is now suspected of being a double agent. And worst of all, Monty is now under suspicion as well. He decides, in the best pulp fiction tradition, that the only way to clear his name is to escape from custody and find out the truth about Paul Austin.
The most promising lead he has is Austin’s mistress Helga. If Austin had turned traitor it’s likely there was a woman involved. Women were Austin’s big weakness.
Monty picks up a vital clue from Helga. It is a medallion, supposedly containing a piece of a battle flag stained with the blood of revolutionary martyrs killed at Stalingrad. There is a shadowy organisation, every member of which carries such a medallion. Interestingly enough although this is a revolutionary communist network it seems to have no links with any Soviet or Chinese intelligence agency. No official links, and no unofficial links either. The medallion-carriers are a totally independent ultra-radical revolutionary group with their own agenda.
Monty Nash does some fast talking and infiltrates this network. He has given an assignment - he has to steal 38 million Swiss francs in bearer bonds from a safety deposit box in a bank. Robbing a safety deposit box is a formidable challenge but Monty has a plan.
Things have become complicated since he shot Maria. Maria is a member of the medallion carriers gang. She’s the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen. He’s fallen for her in a big way. She likes him a lot as well and she’s not even angry that he shot her.
Maria has two formidable faithful dogs, fierce but loyal. One of those dogs will be essential to Monty’s plan. But he’ll still have to decide about Maria. She’s an enemy and he loves her.
This novel is interesting in that mostly it’s a conventional Cold War-era spy thriller of the action-adventure type with the assumption that the Americans are of course the good guys. There are however touches of cynicism and Monty starts to wonder if the spy business is as simple as he’d assumed. He’s starting to have conflicted loyalties. There’s some degree of emotional complexity. There’s plenty of action but some very dark moments. And at times there is that faint whiff of existentialism. There are also some hints of noir fiction.
Lone wolves are not exactly unusual in crime and spy fiction and the idea of a cop or spy deciding that it his superiors will never believe he is innocent and that he will have to go rogue and handle the case on his own on a totally unofficial basis is not dazzlingly original either. These clichés don’t seem like clichés here, mainly because Monty isn’t just a straightforward square-jawed hero and the dilemmas he faces have real consequences.
On the other hand Nash is breathtakingly violent and ruthless. He kills a lot of people during this case, and he does so without hesitation or compunction and feels no remorse. Oddly enough he also cries quite often. He’s a complex kind of guy.
Maria is also not quite a straightforward beautiful dangerous lady spy. Her motivations are complex and enigmatic.
An exciting entertaining read with just a bit more to it than you might be expecting. Highly recommended.
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