M.G. Braun’s Operation Jealousy

Operation Jealousy (originally published in French as Plan Jalousie in 1965) was part of M.G. Braun’s series of Al Glenne spy thrillers. The English translation appeared in 1966.

M.G. Braun (1912-1984) was an enormously prolific French thriller writer.

Al Glenne is a French secret service agent. His latest mission is to capture Erik Kleimann alive. Kleimann is a German who has been living in Paraguay since 1945, having decided that his wartime activities could cause him some embarrassment in post-war Europe. Now he’s in France, because of Nadine.

Kleimann possesses some papers which could prove very embarrassing for a prominent fast-rising American politician. The Americans want those papers for obvious reasons. The French want them - they will give the French useful leverage over the Americans. The Russians want them for that reason also.

The opening sequence (which takes a place a decade before the min events of the novel) is rather startling. Kleimann has sent an assassin to kill the pretty teenaged Nadine because she has discovered things about him and he cannot take the risk that she might be persuaded to reveal that information. The assassin is a skilled professional. Knowing that she is about to be killed gets Nadine very excited. She is in fact on the point of orgasm. But she is not killed. Instead she ruthlessly and efficiently kills the assassin. Nadine is clearly an unusual girl.

Kleimann is relieved that she survived. He now realises how much he loves her.

But Kleimann is very very jealous. And while Nadine loves him she is not entirely faithful. If he ever finds her in another man’s arms he will kill her and her lover.

Which is what led the French secret service to formulate their plan to capture Kleimann. They will set Nadine up to serve as the bait to bring him into the open. Al Glenne dislikes the plan. Even by the murky moral standards of the world of espionage it seems to him to be sleazy and nasty. But he has his orders.

With so many people after Kleimann things naturally get complicated and there are plenty of temptations to pull double-crosses.

It’s a neat plot with nice twists but this is a psychological spy thriller. In fact it’s a psycho-sexual spy thriller. Everything hinges on the exact nature of Kleimann’s feelings towards Nadine and her feelings towards him. And she’s a very complicated girl. Unless Al Glenne can figure out exactly what Nadine’s motivations are he cannot complete this mission. It’s worse than that. He has to be able to predict Nadine’s actions. Now that is not going to be easy.

It would also be helpful to Al if he knew exactly how Kleimann was likely to react under the impetus of his jealousy. But he doesn’t know that.

There’s a reasonable amount of action. There’s not much sex but the plot is driven by both erotic desires and emotional desires.

Nadine is perhaps a femme fatale of sorts. She could lead Al Glenne to his doom, or she could lead Kleimann to his doom. Al can’t decide if she’s a misunderstood nice girl or a calculating bitch or a cheap slut. She might be all three at once.

Operation Jealousy is an excellent slightly unusual spy story. Highly recommended.

I’ve also reviewed other M.G. Braun spy novels featuring Al Glenne. Apostles of Violence and Operation Atlantis are excellent. That Girl from Istanbul is perhaps not quite as good but it’s still a very fine thriller. These are definitely superior-grade spy novels.