Warehouse of Souls: A New Michael Vaux Novel

In the wake of Roger Croft's Middle East spy thriller trilogy, the formerjournalist-turned-espionage writer has produced a fourth novel, again featuring MichaelVaux, the ex- newsman turned occasional MI6 operative. Department B3, asemi-autonomous sub-group of spy agency MI6, has been ordered to use itscollective talents to hunt down a suspected mole, or double-agent, who issabotaging the efforts of the British Secret Service to run clandestineintelligence operations in Lebanon and the wider Middle East.But B3 is as usual short of active staff. So Sir Nigel Adair, B3's chief, onceagain calls former newsman Vaux out of a leisurely retirement to serve queen andcountry and hunt down the mole. Vaux arrives in Beirut anonymously by commercialairline in order to set up shop without the knowledge of British embassy staffin general and the local MI6 station in particular.He finds a Beirut, once dubbed the ' Paris of the Middle East', still undermassive reconstruction in the wake of the long and bloody civil war as well as[post-war] heavy rocket and missile bombardments from Israeli war ships to punish the Lebanese for harboring Hezbollah, their sworn enemies, and habitual violators of their border in the south of Lebanon.Vaux gets to work by making new contacts, appointing new sub-agents and trustycut-outs, and contacting Chris Greene, a B3 colleague who had been sent outearlier when the Director-General of MI6 and Sir Nigel had mistakenly thoughtthat apprehension of the traitor in their midst would be relatively easy andquick.Vaux settles into a safe house-- an Ottoman-type mansion, somewhat decrepit andawaiting demolition, to make way for yet another high-rise apartment block.Things get complicated when Chris Greene disappears. Now Vaux's daunting tasksare to find him as well as hunt down the mole.Croft is good at setting the scene. Here's an example just--just after Vaux arrives in Shatila, a Palestinian refugee camp:' A canopy of high-voltage cables and telephone wires sagged over the street, linking the decaying tenement buildings on each side'.And: 'The narrow streets [of an old Beirut neighborhood] were clogged with old taxis, big trucks and anarchic cyclists.'Britain's diplomats are reluctant to inform their U.S. allies of their security problems. But Vaux breaks through this 'stiff upper lip' attitude and the final unexpected and unforeseeable climax is due partly to a breakthrough in covert telecommunications tradecraft developed by the ever-vigilant CIA whose station chief in Beirut takes a shine to B3's maverick secret agent.He contacts the CIA's chief of station after he learns of a breakthrough incommunications technology which takes advantage of the Achilles' heel of cellphone technology. Meanwhile, Greene is sent home [he is an obvious assassinationtarget now that he can identify his kidnappers] and replaced by the youngill-fated Sebastian Micklethwait [see 'The Maghreb Conspiracy'].Finally, the culprit is detected. And it is a big surprise. Readers should bewarned no to turn to the final pages of the book--it will give the game away.All in all, a great fourth novel for the spy series--a 'who-dun-it' wrapped inthe eternal fog of war and espionage.

I rarely give up on a book. I am now 50% of the way through this one and cannot bear it any longer. This book was supposed to by an action type spy novel. Well Roger Croft is no Ludlum and far from a Follett. Sorry but this book is mostly fill that has little to do with the story and very little action. I hope I didn't pay too much for this one.

Third and last in the series. Dry English humour and very enjoyable reading.