Kaleidoscope
Written by Michael Frost Beckner & Reviewed by Noreen in the Cell
This six part serial series penned by the man who brought you Spy Game begins like every other novel: with a prologue, and that prologue introduces us to Lynn Kingston, part of America’s most famous spy family near the Chesapeake. They’re like the Kennedy’s, except without the bootlegging or ear piercing accent.
To be clear, a fun book and admirable piece of work. It’s a unique style, heavy on characterization and light on proper spy beats. A preferred kind of story, plus minimal physical description of characters. Even the plot is minimal really. The bulk of the experience is felt through the family’s relationship to the truth as well as their relationship to one another. A practically perfect microcosm for life as a spy.
Michael Kingston, brother and subordinate to Lynn, is the handler for Turkish priest Father Cevik. An intensely handsome man of about seventy or so. Unremembered by Lynn. Recognizable only to Michael and only by his Russian codename, Kalaydoskop.
Michael is in Turkey, and gets a drop of photos from padre right before he is arrested. Michael calls his sister Lynn stateside with the update, she demands he return home, he refuses. Sounds like he mails Lynn photos before beginning his mission to retrieve Cevik, plus a veiled reference to Lynn being killed in two days? This was odd because she does not in fact die in the next two days.
A spy can’t slip in and out of a secret door if he hasn’t erected a massive labyrinth of false walls to conceal it.
Lynn is fuming about Michael’s insubordination and grabs the gin. Again. Michael allows himself to be captured by the daunting Turkish Colonel Vural. Flashback to family football. Daddy Silas is unfairly cruel to Lynn while Mommy Doris does nothing and Michael watches in frustration. Little brother Hal just wants to be included. And then another flashback to Doris’s funeral. The three kids attend, Lynn is drunk and the two boys are in uniform.
Back in the present, Lynn goes to Dad but Silas is an incoherent mess. (He sleeps outside because of Melody?? More on her later apparently.) There’s a portrait of Doris atop the grand staircase that bounces off every mirror in every room in the house. Mental note to do this in my own mansion some day. Michael, meanwhile, is bloody and taken to Turkey’s MIT HQ.
Another family chapter while Michael is interrogated. Lynn visits Gwen, Michael’s wife, to tell the news but the three girls assume it’s divorce talk. Melody - Hal’s spouse- visits Silas about his project which is apparently moving his crap to the guest house so that precious Melody’s beauty sleep won’t be disturbed while her husband is away.
Father Cevik is killed trying to relay intel to Michael during their interrogation. Lynn updates Silas about the mission for Michael and Hal’s location. Gwen’s oldest daughter Paige goes to some party with a handsy dude and gets saved by some black Brit. Hero or player?
On Friday, July 2, Michael is being transported to the woods for burial when his truck is ambushed by Hal Kingston. Gwen goes to Silas’ house because Paige never came home the night before. Silas is not concerned but Melody feels bad. Hal and Michael’s chopper is ambushed by the Turkish colonel upon extraction. Michael goes aground but Hal and his team must leave, making it sound like they left Michael to die a certain death. This scene was not written well - very disorienting. While the case could be made for this being effective to simulate what Hal and Michael are enduring at the moment, it had to be read multiple times to get command of the plot.
Paige finally comes home and a drunk Lynn tells the family Michael has vanished.
On Saturday, July 3, the Kingston’s go to church. Silas is banging the priest apparently? Hal is debriefing in a plane. Everyone everywhere is convinced Michael is dead except Hal and Silas. Lynn and her DDO debate Michael’s motive, as one of his fake passports was used at Athens…but this means he was planning an escape? Hal returns home in the middle of the night and the envelope of glass and photos that Michael got from Cevik at the beginning appears under Lynn’s office door.
This prompts the flashback to Lynn’s first piece of her glass collection. Given to her by Michael during a walk with Doris on the beach. Present day Lynn goes to check out some evidence but no longer has clearance. She tells the custodian she’s taking it anyway because she’s a Kingston.
On Sunday July 4, the reader is given more family in the form of a costume contest that Silas takes seriously. Paige wins as Nathan Hale so he takes her to buy fireworks and try driving, where Clive Lancer, the hero/player who somehow gave her a phone has followed them all the way to the fireworks store in PA? He flirts with Paige who is weirded out but doesn’t let Silas know she talked to him. Sounds like he’s vetting Silas. Paige’s willingness to look past straight up stalker red flags was the most uncomfortable part of the entire chapter.
Anyway, it’s on to the fireworks party at the Kingston’s. Silas checks his secret box in the wine cellar, Melody catches him but says nothing. Lynn lies about not drinking, then receives a call from one of her superiors Gary and mentions kaleidoscope to no avail. Michael is almost home, and lushy Lynn has decided she’s going to go pick him up at the airport.
Unfortunately, Michael is assassinated at baggage claim by TSA agents while Lynn is stabbed in the neck by knitting Chinese ladies. Silas uses his wine cellar box to contact Russia, confirming he was the Russian mole in the CIA! He demands to speak to kaleidoscope. Up the street from the Kingston’s, Clive Lancer and his MI6 supervisor listen in on Silas’ broadcast.
Clive shows up innocently to the Kingston compound and introduces himself as an acquaintance of Paige’s to the family. While Lynn fights for her life at the hospital, it is revealed that a doppelgänger was killed, not Michael. Michael is in Switzerland photographing a CEO of some sort. And there you have it.
Apparently, Silas is a character in the Beckner Cinematic Universe, allegedly having been a villain in another story? To be honest, I would be awfully disappointed in reading this book had I known that before I started. But perhaps there’s more to Silas. I look forward to finding out over the course of the next 5 serials.
