Jarrolds' 'Jackdaw Library' paperback edition - 1940
A second book by Marthe McKenna based on the world of spies. I read and Blogged (16th July) on her slightly later written Hunt the Spy, so have now read two of the seventeen books written by Marthe between 1932 and 1951. Thirteen had 'Spy'/'Spies' in their title. I recorded that, although they were all published under Marthe's name, it is speculated that her husband was largely responsible for their writing. Noticing some quite unusual English words being used in this novel, I think it is more than likely John McKenna had a major hand in it, even if he was not totally responsible.
As with that of Hunt the Spy, the story involves an embryonic megalomaniac attempting to steal secrets from the plucky British in a time of increasing instability in world affairs. It commences with Lord Manstead - liaison official between H.M. Cabinet and My Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty - delivering a verbal message to the latter. They include, Sir Walter Thames, Second Sea Lord, Colonel Richard Blanchard, Director Military Intelligence, and Vice-Admiral George Kingston, Director Naval Intelligence. The blue-print for the slotted wing-and-tail affair, so jealously guarded by the R.A.F. is in danger of being purloined. The Moreland Aircraft Company is due to deliver the first of the machines this day week. They go to Brainford, where test pilots of the 59th Fighter Squadron will put them through their paces....the results shown will shape the air defences of London and the counties...in the hands of a hostile spy that secret would place us in a horrible position...Kingston agrees to employ his top agent on the task: no one knew better than he that the unsung hero of secret service freely accepts the hazards and unequal penalties of espionage as part of the exciting game. Manstead asks for, and gains the name of the agent: it will be Sir Walter's nephew, Lieutenant Peter Thames, just back from a mission in the Mediterranean (which we find out later is actually linked into the main plot).
Alack and alas, Manstead does not appear to be the person he is; in fact, it is an imposter. The real Manstead was found dead, stabbed in the back of a car homeward bound. Moreover, the fake is clearly the villain and he now knows the identity of the top British agent assigned to Brainford. So begins the chase - to protect the Brainford end and to track down the enemy spy. Into the mix come several other characters: the Countess Loecelli, known as Countess "Loe", Gerta Meldoff who married Stephan Millar (Muller), notorious secret agent, who met his death in an aeroplane crash in Silesia with the famous French war ace, Paul Verrari. (The reader should not let this slip his mind). The Countess ensures her undoubted great beauty and uncanny espionage acumen will ingratiate herself in the confidence of highly placed Government officials and leaders of the haut-monde...it is more than suspected her activities are hostile to Britain. Wants watching, then; and she is watched, throughout the book. Luckily, there is a highly intelligent and brave girl of pluck on the British side. She is Elsie Bennett, Admiral Kingston's confidential secretary-cum-secret-agent in emergency, and (half-suspected by the Admiral) Peter Thames' girlfriend. When the master spy and enemy, the audacious desperado Ared Black, gets in touch with Kingston to barter, it is Elsie who is sent to treat with him. One of the compelling angles of the tale is to unmask Ared - who is he really? I half-guessed early on and got it half-right, but also proved to be half-wrong, thanks to a final twist at the end.
Peter and Elsie meet up, both only just unscathed. They are joined by a Robert Van Roy, an American agent, who also wishes to stop 'Black', whoever he is, from gaining the Brainford secrets. Van Roy is not above getting a step ahead of the British on behalf of his own government and is involved right up to the very end in various chicanery. The author, he or she, keeps up the pace throughout and after an exciting battle of wits at Brainford, the denouement comes on the High Seas, on the great liner Olypian, which sees Thames and Van Roy battle it out with Ared Black's henchman. Black himself dies most aptly, if the reader has followed the story closely. Not a bad yarn!
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