American Spy
Written by Lauren Wilkinson & Reviewed by the Caretaker
If President Barack Obama can publicly laud this book, then so can the Crime Carnival. And to address the keystone shaped elephant in the room: yes, there was likely some agenda driven motivation for the nation’s first non-white president to so vociferously recommend a novel from a marginalized subgenre (misogynistic flavored espionage) written by a marginalized demographic. But understand that this paragraph is the first and last time it will be addressed, because the book flat out rips. The story doesn’t put itself at odds with the obstacles of progress prevalent in both our species and our artforms, and it doesn’t lecture us on the shortcomings of our cultures, but rather it folds these realities into the tapestry of the main character’s journey, and the result is a fairly templatic tale of espionage that gets elevated to unfettered heights due to the author’s tremendous story telling ability.
The Protagonist Agent Marie begins the novel feeling inferior for being a woman in a man’s world; her father, uncle and boss reminding her every chance they get. But by the end of the novel, those same qualities that held her back have now become the badges on her uniform that no other agent was able to successfully acquire.
She systematically turns every perceived “weakness” in her female-issued arsenal into a strength, and one that cannot be replicated by her male colleagues. And it’s all done feasibly while remaining germane to the book as opposed to the all too common shoehorning method that many stories employ to brandish their ideological compliance. People credit John le Carre with the quintessential character of depth in the genre for George Smiley, but he also spread that richness out over the course of eight books and nearly three decades. Lauren Wilkinson comes devilishly close to matching le Carre’s penchant for nuance in their character, and she does it in just a touch over 300 pages while servicing multiple timelines as well.
On the outside, she’s surrounded by men. But on the inside, she’s learning to believe in her uniqueness, despite her environment trying to mold her into the same form and function of all her male counterparts. Her father, her uncle, her boss, and even her own conscience spend much of the novel punishing Marie for not being male. You do a well enough job now for a woman, just imagine how good you’d be at this spy thing if you were a man! And yet one male agent after another fails to infiltrate antagonist Saranka’s inner circle to deduce his ethics. It never occurs to anyone in US Intelligence that a woman may be better suited to the task at hand. And of course, once the suggestion of a woman is put forth, the hasty conclusion is that she’ll only succeed where the men failed by spreading her legs. Marie, unfortunately, believes that at first as well. And one can’t blame her, considering her own family are CIA employees and they’re trumpeting the loudest about the unfair advantage she’s relying on to get ahead. But then pieces start to fall into place for her. Marie grew up mostly in Harlem, so she has a connection (besides heritage) to black culture that the majority of the CIA does not. She grew up with one dark skinned parent and one light skinned parent, so not only does she have rapport, but she also has experience being shunned by her own people for “not being black enough.” She recognizes that this asset isn’t a detriment or a crutch or some sort of cheat code. It’s part of what created the Agent she is and why she’s more qualified to deal with Thomas Saranka, a man touting a resurgence of black culture in West Africa while simultaneously being shunned by such a large portion of their society. Slowly but surely she recognizes that the things she’s been mocked for her whole life are actually the things that provide her strength and her competitive advantage over the other Agents. And amongst all this growth and development, she builds up the emotional strength and fortitude to not only recognize what a failure her mother was in raising her, but also repurposes all that trauma she suffered as a source of strength. How refreshing to see this character resist labels like victim, choosing instead to showcase her healed callouses instead of using her past as an excuse to continuously fail herself and those around her. I think the author even tips her hand a bit to demonstrate that her character’s opinions aren’t too far removed from her own.
The tale opens with a man attempting a murder overnight, thwarted by our protagonist Marie because, well, she killed him. Marie leaves their house in CT and flees to her mother Agathe’s house in France. The father of Marie’s children was killed and Marie is writing a letter to her kids to explain his real death as well as his identity. We’re off and running. The story more or less follows multiple time lines meant to provide snapshots of Marie’s arc.
In NYC, Marie lived in Queens in 62. Marie’s mom Agathe thought her hubby and all his friends were snitches, (nope, just spies) so she left the family and deserted to Martinique, France. Marie promised to never leave her kids like that, even though she’s about to do the exact thing to her children in the present. Intergenerational trauma is a low key constant in this subgenre.
In 87 NYC, Marie lives in an apartment in Harlem. Her dad visits to announce that her grandfather just died and left the Brooklyn brownstone to her. She’s upset but has no one to share her sorrow with. At this time, she’s still not speaking to her mom because of what she said at Helene’s funeral (Marie’s sister). In NYC 67, Marie and Helene learn that their dad’s friend Mr. Ali is a spy when they see him speaking with a different name on tv at Malcolm X’s funeral. The girls and Marie’s father Leon go hunting for Helene’s birthday and Helene shoots a doe and curiously learns to field dress while Marie goes back to the car and pukes. She realizes that she’s weaker than Helene and must improve at hiding her fear or discomfort.
In NYC87, Marie and her boss Rick Gold meet Ed Ross, CIA, who wants intel on an upcoming visit on a politician Thomas Saranka. (Ghana) It’s all a ruse to get Marie to go undercover instead. She refuses, feeling she’s selected for color and gender, not merit. Ross tracks her down outside the office and convinced her to dinner for one final pitch for her to help. Marie meets Ross and his boyfriend Phillip the next night, with Ross playing up his oppressed gayness to bond with the black woman. Turns out Daniel Slater, an ex of Helene’s, referred Marie. CIA wants her to get close to Thomas Saranka to see what he knows about USA and CIA. She feels objectified, but agrees to under the condition she get to interrogate Daniel about Helene, as he knows things Marie does not about her sister.
Marie begins her first undercover case and goes to the UN to meet Thomas. She slightly wins him over, though he remarks he’ll never return to NYC because it’s just an echo chamber with no real resolutions. She invites him to be his tour guide thru Harlem the following day and he agrees. They meet at her place and walk to the rally in Harlem against his Secret Service’s wishes. He’s in a crap mood, but turns it on for his Down with Imperialism speech. Marie returns home to see a van, presumably waiting to create blackmail material on Thomas if they both returned to hook up.
Marie is at dinner after making the trip east when Daniel appears. They drink and talk and Daniel reveals that Ross lied to her about never having been to Ghana and that she’s not working for CIA. Daniel is leaving the company and starting his own intel, SSI, just like Helene dreamed. He basically is trying to poach Marie with this assignment being her trial run. He also reveals that him and Helene married in Vegas just hours before she died in the accident. Marie abruptly leaves, stunned. She hears from Daniel again who asks her to hit a dead drop for him and bring the film to a USA embassy. She brings it there where he is waiting, and he’s not received warmly by station chief, arousing further suspicion of him by Marie. They develop film revealing Thomas’s best friend as an informant. She hears Thomas give a speech via radio at a local cafe before heading to the women’s shelter to drop the developed film at Daniel’s desk. She does and goes home only to be visited in the middle of the night by Thomas. They flirt in her bedroom before he accuses her of spy tomfoolery, which she denies. The next morning Slater shows up and takes her to his “other” base, a facility housing a KGB prisoner. Slater tells Marie she wasn’t here for blackmail; they offer her a job as an assassin with Thomas as target. Thomas will be in Ghana the next day for a speech; she’s supposed to kill him there. If she doesn’t, she will be disavowed by the USA in this foreign land. She goes to Ghana and finds him walking a wildlife preserve. She tells him he’s in danger and his VP is the traitor, but he already knew. They separate before he shows up at her room where they hook up. She finds Slater’s house and his bedroom nearby and shoots him. She flees, being chased. Overnight she makes it to the Ghana border. She then hears that Thomas and his entourage were slaughtered by the VP’s goons after Thomas learned Marie wouldn’t go thru with it.
87 Martinique Marie goes there to hide where she learns she is pregnant...with Thomas’ twins. She gives birth, suffers post natal hemorrhages but survives and stays with her mom to help raise the boys for two years. Her dad even visits and the fam all get along. 1992 she finally finishes her letter for her children before leaving her kids with Agathe so that she can find Ross and kill him for sending that CIA man in the middle of the night to attempt to kill her.
Her father and mother both serve mentoring roles to her, professional and personal. And each betray her by failing her as both parents and role models. Her CIA contact Ross also mentors her by serving as her domestic handler and satisfies both the character and the narrative arcs by betraying the trust he established with her throughout the mission on a character level while also betraying her in the narrative sense when he set her up to be killed once she was no longer useful to his organization. A really tight story that on the surface may resemble a patchwork of espionage tropes, yet by providing a fresh POV, the story beats hit like they’re all being discovered for the first time. One of my favorite spy novels that I’ve ever read and I cannot recommend it enough to readers of any genre.
