The Spanish Game
by Charles Cumming
(St. Martin's Press, $24.95, V) ISBN 0-312-36639-6
****
Charles Cumming continues with Alec Milius in his second spy novel. Alec was recruited by England's master spy agency in the first novel, and came to grief in an operation involving the CIA.  Some six years later he merely exists in Madrid. Having redefined the state of paranoia, he lives as if he is being followed every time he leaves his apartment. He operates in abject fear of his old colleagues finding him; and seeks to protect himself by changing his route every time he ventures forth, changing hotel rooms after check in, often changing his name, and altering methods of payment for goods and services.

Not all of Alec’s decisions are wise ones, as he chooses the wife of his boss to have an affair with. The story opens as his former best friend Saul arrives to spend his vacation with him. Alec is worried that Saul is there to betray him in some fashion, so it is with some measure of relief that he accepts the newest task assigned by his boss. Working for a British investment bank, Alec is charged with investigating the suitability and risks of investments in the Basque region of Spain.

His employer provides the initial contact for Alec, and thus he begins his journey into the complex Basque separatist movement known as the ETA. His contact, Arenza, had been or was a member of its political wing until it was officially banned in 2002. Their first meeting goes well and a future one is planned for Madrid. Arenza does not show, and since Alec can never truly divorce himself from playing spy, he enmeshes himself in this terrifying world of intrigue and double-cross searching for the explanation.

It is evident that Charles Cumming has carefully researched this area in Northern Spain and the secularized nationalistic agenda of the ETA in the early years of the 21st century. He utilizes well the terrain of Spain and especially Madrid to enrich and to add texture to his story.

With respect to his characters, he starts with fairly shallow ones, but continues to develop them with subtle nuances wrought by their responses to the changing situations generated by conflict, betrayal and the great unknown of who your friend and enemies truly are.  Although Alec is painted as the neurotic case-hardened deposed spy, his vulnerability begins to shine through and it is clear from the ending that he will reappear in yet another novel.

Cumming has been touted as the successor to Le Carre and Deighton, and the similarities are striking. Choosing to posture Milius as an anti -hero is reminiscent of both authors, as well as the very carefully researched inner workings of the world of intelligence gathering. It is more current certainly, because this novel is set against the background of the Iraq War and the shadowy political consequences generated by the War on Terror.

--Thea Davis


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