I enjoyed enormously, 'A Spy By Nature', by Charles Cummings which just about fits into the genre of crime, but maybe not in the conventional sense. However there is much more to it than that and the story is told through the character of Alec Milius. It is not a fast read and the first chapters are taken up with assessments in the seedy recesses of the Foreign Office. There is so much detail that is written with care. Milius, with others are all being tested, questioned and analysed for their fitness to become involved in a deceptive world. Even this early on characters are introduced so that you can feel that the reader has met them, looked them in the eye and shaken their hand.
The story evolves with his employment in the commercial world of oil and then there is activity with the Americans. It is 'big business' after all I enjoyed the introduction of the participants and how they were involved in plot and counter activities. Of course not everything will be as intended and that is where parts of the book enthralled me. That may be the case, but this novel is about people, how they operate, their emotions and anxieties, what they can lie about and how they deal with the outcome.
Upon finishing the last chapter I wanted to know what was in the follow up, 'The Spanish Game' and I was hooked again. In the end I was inside the head of Alec Milius, but not wanting to be in his shoes. I did not want it to end, and I felt that I had lost something when he left me!
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