Day of Absolution: A Novel Book

John Gardner shares a few interests and abilities with William F. Buckley. Like the erudite American writer, whose Blackie Oakes thrillers are a mainstay of spy fiction, Gardner is smart, well-educated, and a pleasure to read, even without a dictionary close at hand. Like Buckley, Gardner knows the ins and outs of the intelligence trade (he took over the James Bond franchise from the late Ian Fleming, and has penned 16 007 novels since Fleming's death). And like Buckley, whose Spytime focuses on the Kim Philby spy scandal that rocked Britain a generation ago, Gardner also goes back to the history books to take another look at the circle of young Cantabrigians who became spies for the Soviet Union. His Philby-like character is one Kit Palfrey, an infamous traitor who turns up one night while former intelligence operative Charlie Gauntlet is celebrating his wedding to Bex Olesker, a member of the London police antiterrorist branch. Charlie's out of the trade, but his instincts are still sharp, and when Palfrey convinces him that the five ancient scrolls he spirited out of Moscow's Lubianka prison and stored in a monastery in Scotland have vast implications for Christianity and perhaps for the future of the western world, he dusts off his old cloak and dagger and heads north. The monks who are guarding the scrolls don't seem like the religious type to Charlie; they carry side arms, and he's seen them before in decidedly unholy circumstances. Meanwhile, his young bride is tracking the deadliest terrorist of them all: the Alchemist, a Carlos-the-Jackal type whose plot to kill the Russian president and his wife during an upcoming state visit to London has Bex and her colleagues racing against the clock to catch him. Gardner manages to tie the two main plots together in a smashing finale, but not before sprinkling his fast-moving thriller with erudition, quotations, and literary allusions so beloved by Buckley's fans. This clever novel will appeal to fans of John le Carré, Buckley, and Fleming. If it's your first Gardner, you'll be eager to search his large backlist for more of the same. --Jane AdamsRead More