Solomon Dortmund is a long-retired spy, kept cosily as a
civil service favour. In a London coffee shop one day he
sees what his traditional methods used to refer to as a
'drop' -- secretly exchanging a note. THE MARYLEBONE DROP
is not much in itself but desperate to be still involved,
still important, Solomon reports the woman and man he
spotted. John Bachelor, the agent, tasked with paying
attention to all the pensioners, disregards this initially.
Hannah Weiss, the double agent, is, in fact, a triple agent,
working for the German spy agency and keen to know what
Brexit will bring. She wants to worm her way into a better
position. She knows all e-communications are tapped so
that's why she went the old-fashioned letter route. But
when Bachelor does look into the report, she has to worry.
This novella is written in slow, meandering, John leCarre-
like fashion, introducing one character in the British civil
service monolith and spy world after another, and showing
how, sadly, they all just turn out to be driven by money. If
you are not sure whether you'll enjoy the style -- which is
a long way from technothrillers -- this book is 70 pages
long so it's a good trial, plus at the end there's a few
chapters from a rather more vicious tale of agents and
murder, called London Rules. These are in the series called
Slough
House. Anyone who prefers the more old-fashioned,
gentleman's club type of spy story should enjoy THE
MARYLEBONE DROP by Mick Herron, who is perhaps a satirist as
well as a crime author, judging by this tale.
A drop, in spook parlance, is the passing on of secret
information. It’s also what happens just before you hit the
ground.
Old spooks carry the memory of tradecraft in their bones,
and when Solomon Dortmund sees an envelope being passed from
one pair of hands to another in a Marylebone café, he knows
he’s witnessed more than an innocent encounter. But in
relaying his suspicions to John Bachelor, who babysits
retired spies like Solly for MI5, he sets in motion a train
of events that will alter lives.
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