A Fatal Game

It seems that Nicholas Searle is a most unusual author. Before starting his career as a writer, he was, for many years, a senior civil servant “dealing with security matters”. Having retired, he enrolled on an online creative writing course run by the literary agents Curtis Brown, and then published his first novel – The Good Liar – in February 2016. It became an instant bestseller and has now been made into a film starring Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen.

Because of his previous career we can assume that Searle’s third novel – A Fatal Game – contains a fair bit of inside knowledge about the security services and their fight against terrorism. And to endorse this, the book’s cover shows a quote from a review saying: ‘Think of Ruth Rendell morphing into John Le Carré.’ So far, so good. But is it really?

The book’s protagonist is a spook called Jake Winter, a man who is treading water. A few months before the start of the story one of his informants (a boy called Abu Omar) had become a suicide bomber, setting off his bomb in a crowded train station, killing 63 people. Jake is now giving evidence at the public inquiry while, at the same time, trying to manage a new informant, a young man called Rashid.

As we’re introduced to more characters, the book splits into sections. The reader is allowed to hear the thoughts and feelings of each of the three boys who have been recruited to work alongside Rashid by a terrorist they call The Sheikh. Later, we also hear the thoughts and feelings of Jake’s colleagues, Leila and Jon.

The story see-saws between the public inquiry and the efforts being taken by Jake and his colleagues to stop another attack. And all the while in the background, senior spooks, politicians and policemen vie for supremacy and look for someone – anyone – to blame for what has happened before. You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to realise that Jake will be the fall guy.

As a group we surprised ourselves because we all felt the same way about this book – something that rarely happens. Yes, it is a tense scenario, which hooks you in immediately. But apart from one twist at the end, we found the story rather predictable. The clues about The Sheikh’s identity were there to see and the characters (even Jake) were wooden. And across all its strands the story followed a logical, rather plodding path. This wasn’t a page-turner bursting with tension that you couldn’t bear to put down. The ending, when it came, surprised no-one in our group.

One person compared Searle’s writing style to watching a stage production where, at the end of each chapter, you could see the stage hands changing the props and scenery. And although the final twist in the story was unexpected and unusual, we didn’t think it was enough to rescue the whole. The highest rating offered was 3.5 Stars and the lowest 2-Stars.

At the end of our discussion, someone mentioned that Searle has already sold the film rights for this story. Sadly, we wondered if this explained why he didn’t try harder to make it work on the page. Maybe he should stick to scripts.

This book kept me hooked from start to finish. A tense and tightly written thriller, I’ll now be seeking out the author’s other books.
One niggle I did have was the American spellings of words in a British book, but maybe I’m being a little pedantic...
Nb. There’s a spelling mistake on Page 150.

This book deals with a subject that was hardly known to me; how the anti-terrorist forces deal with imminent attack. It was a revelation, and, I presume quite close to the truth as the author was employed in this sector for many years.

The book is full of detail, sometimes making it a heavy read, but I felt impelled to read to the end as the outcome was uncertain. Not my favourite book but I am pleased to have read it and would read more by this author.

A major terrorist attack has just hit a busy train station and members of the public have been killed. The Security Services knew about the planned attack in advance and Jake Winter was the Intelligence Officer in charge of the operation to stop it. His career, his self-esteem and his confidence levels are at an all-time low but life has to go on. While he is attending the public enquiry and being interviewed in detail about his role and what exactly went wrong in the previous attack, unbeknown to the enquiry panel or the public, he is also involved in his next “project”. On this occasion his source is Rashid, a young man who has been fighting abroad for “the cause” and has now been selected as one of the main perpetrators of the next planned attack. He has allegedly become disillusioned and was therefore willing to be recruited by British Intelligence Services in an attempt to foil the next attack. But can he be trusted? That is the million dollar question but there are no certainties in Jake’s world, and he cannot afford to make a second mistake. This book basically gives a blow-by-blow account of the anti-terrorist operation as it unfolds.

In essence this book is a very detailed behind-the-scenes look at counter-terrorism and it is fascinating. I have absolutely no idea whether the methods used by the Intelligence Forces in this book were realistic but as Nicholas Searle, the author, worked in Intelligence for many years, presumably this lends a degree of authenticity to the narrative. The methods used to fight terrorism are far more complicated than I could ever have envisaged and the amount of work required, combined with the numbers of people involved in a single operation are staggering as procedures and processes are put in place to safeguard the security of the British public. Not only are we given an insight into a world which would normally be totally inaccessible to mere mortals, but the book also investigates the complex relationships between all the participants in this multifaceted operation and how trust becomes a leap of faith, tempered by a very large dose of caution. I thought that the aspect of the book which worked particularly well was the way in which the author allowed us to examine the feelings, doubts and emotions of all the concerned parties. And when I say all, I mean not just the police and the government departments involved in the operation, but also the terrorists themselves and the members of the public who have been affected by previous attacks.

For me the downside was that there was just too much detail and I found myself getting bogged down (and actually a little bit bored) with the minutiae at times. Also, although written in the third person, I often found myself unsure as to who the subject was which didn’t make for an easy read.

I had never come across Nicholas Searle before but will look out for his other books. Whilst I was not totally convinced by this one, it was good enough for me to give his books another chance.