![]() ![]() ![]() One gets the impression that most everyone is at heart good-natured and well-meaning if there were only a little more situational clarity, all would be hunky-dory. What betrayals ensue are quite rational and almost forgivable. For the most part, his major and minor characters are merely the victims of bad information, or deliberate misinformation, rather than their own beliefs, avarice, conflicting loves and loyalties, indecision or even incompetence. The campus characters are the least interesting, even if McDonell ensures each has their snug place in his novel's preordained puzzle.īut while he has down the storytelling mechanics of a le Carré or Greene, and almost the chops, McDonell falls short when it comes to summoning the necessary quotient of moral murkiness. Narratively, at least, he succeeds in fusing the campus novel with political thriller, although we could do with less of the former and more of the latter. As the various players are sucked into the undertow of Hatashil's story and caught up in the shifting loyalties and aims of the intelligence community, McDonell writes with snap and verve, in chiselled, compact sentences that eschew too much description in favour of a slick pace. ![]()
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