A Peach of a Spy Story.

The Spanish Game by Charles Cumming

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read the first Alec Milius novel, A Spy by Nature. I decided to go for the second novel of Milius because the first was very good. Well, the second is equally as compelling. Alec Milius is living in Madrid and it is five years after his traumatic brush with espionage, working for the British Secret Service. He has gone to ground and has been using his espionage training to stay off of the radar. Especially the American CIA, who he has caused problems for.

He has a well-paid job for a British company based in Madrid and is having an affair with a beautiful Married Spanish lady. He is a little paranoid and is always careful to cover his tracks from the British and American secret service organisations. It is second nature to him.

His company send him North on some important ground laying work for his company to do a business venture in the Basque region of Spain. While here, he meets with an ex-ETA man who Alec rather likes as a person. I can’t say much more without spoiling the story. All this leads to Alec opening up a Pandora’s Box. He can’t get the unwelcome Genie back into the bottle.

There are plans within plans. Diabolical scheming with the Spanish government and Alec finds himself as a free-lance pawn caught up in all of this. The whole saga is mind blowing right up until the end. The surprises come fast and furious. If you love a good spy thriller then I would strongly recommend this second Alec Milius novel. An absolute peach of a read.

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More and More, People Become Uneasy with Government Spying

Many leading publications are becoming uneasy with all of this, but there is an enormous grey area. Government and Police are often seen as using security protection of all citizens as an excuse to compile data on everyone. Even people who do not offend. Some publication are voicing concerns against government spying along such lines below:

A government's first job is to protect its citizens. But that should be based on informed consent, not blind trust. Our cover leader in most of our editions looks at this point. 

Even allowing for the need to keep some things clandestine, Americans, we argue, need a clearer idea of what their spies are doing in their name. In Europe, however, we feature our special report on Germany: the continent's "reluctant hegemon" should now take a firmer lead in the euro zone". 

John Micklethwait, Editor-in-Chief