A Spy Alone
Written by Charles Beaumont & Reviewed by the Green Vegetable
Always a watershed moment when one gets to sample a new author. Will the blacklist of authors who deserve a scarlet letter grow by one, or will this story feed the nostalgia that has one yearning for that feeling of discovering a literary genius for the first time?
Spoilers. The answer is neither. Or at least too soon to tell. But nonetheless, this book was a great read and the author deserves the according praise. It’s such a rewarding and efficient experience when chapters are treated like their own little crucible in a larger story. And this story was quite literally a masterclass on how to execute the phenomenon. But the dangling of a new name nearly every chapter, and that is not hyperbole, was laborious at best. And unfortunately, the ending was as underwhelming as the new name game was laborious, deeming itself implausible after nearly 300 pages of grounded espionage. The similarities, however, to the budding undercurrent of the Epstein deep state that derails the good intentions of good folks were eerily recognizable. And for that the author deserves a tip of the cap. Thank you for choosing the right side of history, may your fortunes respond in kind.
Prologue - Simon is walking around Oxford identifying a team of tails (the box). He meets up with Sarah, an old acquaintance.
2022 - London. Simon is giving a talk about intel. A man named Benedict approaches him regarding Gregory Sidorov, a Russian oligarch who used Oxford to wash his dirty Russia money. But now that everyone pretends to care about Ukraine this must be swept under the rug. Ben references his boss Marcus, an old colleague of Simon’s. Simon confirms Ben is legit through Marcus but is ethically opposed to UK playing the moral authority card all of a sudden.
1995 - London. Simon is first introduced to Sidorov while researching Russian workflow. He learns Gregory was groomed for KGB before the wall crumbled, then went freelance during Yeltsin. He frequently visits Oxford, Simon suspects he’s recruiting. Then Simon doesn’t hear of him for thirty years. In 2022, Simon’s secretary Evie is researching reasons why the oligarch Gregory would give such a large endowment to Oxford. They speculate, but learn he has a British Virgin Island company making donations directly to professor Peter McKenzie despite sanctions. Sounds like a lead…
Back to 1992, Simon goes to his first class and it’s Professor McKenzie. One other student arrives named Gough. They get drunk and discuss the fall of Europe from 1910-1960. In 2022, Simon must report his progress to O’Brien but withholds anything about McKenzie for now. Then O’Brien asks his team what they know about McKenzie…
In 1992, Simon sees Gough talking to some aristocrat Lewis so he ingratiates himself. They booze at his dorm where McKenzie shows up…Simon realizes that McKenzie died a miserable drunk, but his network are still running the country.
This book does not have sure footing. There’s too much time jumping, coupled with big and small moments with these characters. He’s a forgotten professor one page, then a criminal mastermind the next. It’s a local issue then it’s a global crisis…while the juxtaposition is appreciated in a literary sense and to be expected on account of the dueling timelines, the story is disjointed for the reader.
Simon and Evie visit Dylan the Wizard, a dark web specialist for any info on Sidorov’s large payment to McKenzie. He gets nothing but they find a company named Flood 19 receiving payments from the same account as the Domimina company Evie discovered earlier…payments stopped 9/17 when Peter McKenzie died.
In 1993, Simon meets Sarah at Peter’s party and pretends to be Jewish to impress the Jew Sarah, who’s later mad at Peter for his drunk antisemitic remarks. Simon then visits McKenzie for career advice, but he’s also drunk, his job being threatened and tries to pull a HJ from Simon for a job rec. Simon leaves, then runs into Rory his frenemy and has a pint.
Now it’s 2002 Vienna and Vasya Morozov, Simon’s best work, is recruited. He blackmails Alan Ferguson, who also works in Vienna as the foremost hydro nuclear surveillance man by taping him with a side chick. Austrian agents learn of this after surveilling Alan. Simon catches wind and exploits Alan into providing fake intel to Vasya, leading to him being trapped by Simon with no choice but to work for him. Twelve years later in Helsinki, Simon learns that Vasya is feeding him bad intel about Crimea and Ukraine. He returns to London to resign.
Eight years after that, Simon and Vasya chat, though Vasya still hates Simon because the Brits exploited his Russian patriotism for spy stuff. Simon persists anyway, before Vasya relents and says they need to talk about Costello.
This story is good but it’s melodramatic and insignificant. Juxtaposition of the world’s biggest story with these two past their prime spies is poetic but makes things feel a little flat. Will see if that element improves but it continues to bog down progress and immersion.
Simon and Evie meet with his boss O’Brien for progress report. But he can’t mention the Costello conspiracy because this is supposed to be about the connection between Sidorov and Mackenzie. Then Evie learns about a Russian Rudi von Pannwitz that’s in Prague they must go see about. (Getting further into the weeds with this story. Nothing is getting fleshed out or resolved, just adding names to a pile.)
Thankfully chapter 16 offers a step in the right direction. They meet with von Pannwitz and he’s sketchy but provides meeting logs of SVR officers in Oxford. Evie later reveals that McKenzie likely recruited, then passed prospects to Sidorov for vetting. Now that they have logs, people that met Peter then Grigory can be considered part of the Costello ring. As they walk home Evie is run over by a car deliberately.
Yet another character, Rudi, and his two friends that were nearby save Simon at the last second, they flee to Frankfurt. It was Chechens that killed Evie, usually hired by svr. So Simon assumes Vesya either betrayed him or was clumsy. Simon asks Rudi to research the paper trail for Kleshnyov and they will rendezvous later.
Simon peruses Rudi’s data and gets excited because we’ve found yet another name. Rory Gough. Now we need to know all about him…this is starting to feel like talking head news channels that move on to the next crisis before even attempting to resolve the current.
Sarah recruits her colleague Kami to assist going forward. Kami says go see Ian Radcliffe to learn who sells Russians their fake St Kitts passports. FFS, enough with the tower of Babel of characters. Simon visits Ian and the guy refuses to help to the point he’s practically a Russian asset. Simon leaves after telling him to F off. Simon visits Sarah for a romcom chapter. They use their web wizard friend to phish email Ian and he bites…they access Ian’s spreadsheet with thousands of passport apps and 18 in particular clustered around Kleshnyov. They’re both thrilled but Sarah points out it’s still not enough.
Simon returns to his temporary housing where two Russians are tossing it. He kills one and hurts the other, then calls Sarah and says he’s bolting and needs help getting out of Oxford. She says ok but first, here’s another important name to hold you over until the next important name: Amy Cleverly.
Simon flees to Hampshire where somehow a Chechen is there shooting him. He kills him than calls Sarah and snaps at her due to stress. She sends a car to take him to London to chat with her and Amy. Amy tells Sarah more names and that the company expense account between her and Gough was Flood 19 and he met with people regarding Costello as that was their frequent travel name. There’s also a secret file named berezina. This book is good but it’s just one long goose chase. Infinite fetch quests but with people.
Simon visits Sebastian an old college friend who magically lives near the Gough family. Simon calls Sarah. She says the investigation is dead and all the higher ups have resigned to avoid scrutiny. Also Ian is dead, discovered in his own well. Then Sarah says Blondie will be in touch (good more goose chasing) and he’ll smuggle Simon out of country. This is the end of act II apparently but man this story is spinning its wheels.
Simon “borrows” his friend Sebastian’s Land Rover and clandestinely travels to Rory Gough’s parents’ house. Simon interrogates Rory. He admits to hastening UK’s demise because he benefits from his Russian collusion and that the western economy is over with. He offers Simon a cut of the hustle but he declines.
Simon flees to some facility and finds Marcus Peebles there. He was one of a laundry list of names that barely made a ripple in the story. Maybe two lines of dialogue and approximately three references by Sarah? What a cheap resolution. Anyway Simon confronts him but Peebles just rebukes with ‘nuh-uh’ like they’re siblings and Simon just accepts it?? Wtf? Then a tide suddenly appears and Marcus drowns in his car. Good lord what a disappointing chapter.
Simon is trapped on some dumb island that the cops Rory called can’t reach. But Sarah and Blondie magically make it there (despite Simon having no way to alert them where he was. He has Rory’s phone that he can’t unlock yet he can tweet pics he takes with it and send texts to Marcus to set up the confrontation. Come on dude) Anyway Sarah gives him an Italian passport to abscond and tells him they’ve lost because everyone is either involved or dead. And corrupt Patel is taking over NSA so there will be no justice. But since Simon tweeted as Rory it will at least blow up the current ring of corruption and shed light on Costello. Holy unfulfilling Batman. Simon leaves with Blondie in the boat for Italy via Holland.
Epilogue - Simon goes to Ukraine because Vasya told him that’s where Evie’s killer is.
Happen to notice how difficult it was to maintain interest while reading this because of the deluge of background characters constantly forcing you to try to get a handle on things, only to ultimately lose interest entirely? Fantastic. Now you won’t have FOMO if you never read the book.
