Well, close on the title. Very much the successor to 663 (which I think you would have to have read first) but, for me, less compelling.
The heroine, who has so many names/pseudonyms that I can’t remember one, is now living a slightly rootless and post traumatic life in post war England (she had been picked up and imprisoned in a concentration camp following her non-boarding of the aeroplane in the previous book).
So she is back in England, traumatised and confused as to her future. She has a gay scientist brother who is being blackmailed by the Russians, but also, not very convincingly for me, falls in loves with a Russian spy/diplomat so she is playing for both sides trying to protect her brother and either turn or stick with her lover.
A lot of the narrative is provided by a young friend of her parents who is infatuated with her, but this didn’t really work for me.
So, disappointing compared with 663, but they really need to be read as one book.
Comments