William Catesby, a working class English lad, went to
Cambridge and eventually joined the SIS, the British Secret
Intelligence Service. Jeffers Cauldwell is an upper crust
American who works for the CIA, a professional acquaintance
of Catesby's, and is definitely not who he appears to be.
Lady Penelope Somers, "the first woman ever to become 2nd
PUS, Deputy Permanent Undersecretary of State" is a force to
be reckoned with and has many skeletons in her closet. Her
daughter Miranda, a spoiled rich girl, is determined to
break free from her powerful mother's clutches. London 1957
is when we first meet Catesby and those whose lives become
intertwined with his for over a decade.
In the aftermath of
WWII, Communism world-wide was becoming a threatening
reality to the Western democracies, and THE WHITEHALL
MANDARIN is a glimpse into the power struggles between the
USSR, the USA, Britain and China between 1957 and 1969, the
role espionage played during those years, and how everything
disastrously culminated in Vietnam. Although it is a work of
fiction, some historical figures do appear in fictionalised
situations, but as Edward Wilson himself points out, not all
the documentation pertaining to some events has been
declassified yet, and speculation is inevitable, and in
several cases in this book, one does wonder.
THE WHITEHALL MANDARIN will
appeal to fans of Graham Greene and John Le Carre, as it is
very British in tone, extremely well-researched and richly
detailed, painting a sometimes grim picture of the day-to-
day grind of spy work. It demonstrates how easily ideologies
can become muddled, how flimsy motivations behind deciding
to switch allegiances can appear, how rashly made decisions
can lead to disaster.
I am personally quite familiar with
the European side of espionage during the Cold War, but I
was in store for a few surprises, and the part that deals
with Vietnam was especially enlightening as the author
himself served as a Special Officer in Vietnam. I find
positively extraordinary, given the exceptionally large cast
of secondary characters of every spy agency imaginable, as
well as innumerable acronyms of departments and whatnots,
that it never becomes confusing nor boring; I never lost
track of anyone or anything, which is quite a feat in
itself. THE WHITEHALL MANDARIN is a very well-written,
engrossing and captivating book that will keep you thinking
long after you've turned the last page.
British intelligence has a mole deep in the KGB. When that
mole reports on a Soviet spy ring in London, MI6 gets
worried. And when MI6 gets worried, they call Catesby. He is
sent on a mole hunt that leads him through the seamy sex
scandals of 1960s London to the jungles of Vietnam. The
tectonic plates of world power are shifting.
Thrilling and
deeply intelligent, The Whitehall Mandarin reveals the US
government's most deeply held secret - its investigation
into the People's Republic of China, and its concurrent
rise to world domination. It's a secret that Catesby may
not live to share.
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