I have read two other Gerald Seymour books and thoroughly enjoyed them. This book, Traitor's Kiss is not in the same league: I didn't enjoy it anywhere near so much. That's not to say that this is a bad book, it's not. The problem is that this story has essentially been told by the likes of Chris Ryan and other former SAS soldier authors.

Basically, the story concerns the compromise of a Russian spy and how his minders, the British government, deal with the compromise and their friend.

The spy is Viktor Archenko, a Russian military office based in Kaliningrad, of which more soon. He decides to turn into a spy out of a sense of duty and shame as things happen in the Russian navy that he doesn't like. Viktor is the assistant to a very senior military commander and so he not only has access to some seriously interesting information; but of course he is immune from suspicion because of it for longer than someone nearer the bottom of the chain would be.

Things go wrong for Viktor relatively early in the book. The decision is taken thathe must be removed from harm and a team is put together to go and get him; and here is where the story loses some of its edge. The team they choose is made up of former special forces personnel. Nothing wrong with that except they are non conformist former members, living in a hut in the wilds, a caretaker in a grave yard. That sort of thing.

Seymour doesn't use the term Rupert to describe an SAS officer but the sentiment is still there: after all, a Rupert is a Rupert.

Part of the "Head Office" team is a lady who has met and been loved by Viktor: they met on a mission by the British support team in Europe and either by design or by juices they fell for each other. Another standard and formulaic device used by authors to highten the tension at times.

The story is then pretty well predictable. The team goes in, with a couple of moderately interesting twists along the way. The mission turns turtle; but in an all for one and one for all moment, the team decides to carry on with the mission. Of course, the Ruperts were against it.

In the meantime, Viktor has been arrested and is facing the most interesting character in the book: his FSB (use to be the KGB) interrogator, Bikov. What makes Bikov so fascinating is his approach to interrogation: highly targeted but strong and silent. Using nothing more than his personality and psychology, Bikov gets his man. He got his man earlier in the book too; but I'll leave that for you to discover as it is an aside, really, that allows Seymour to prepare us for Viktor's interrogation.

I think Viktor's interrogation was badly described as we are led to believe that Viktor was ground down and bone crushingly weary within just a few hours of being arrested. Unlikely and Seymour should have had him arrested at least the day before.

The team goes in and since they don't know that Viktor has been arrested, they need a bit of luck. Oh, they had a stroke of luck and got the information they needed. They got in to Viktor's interrogation cell and get Viktor out and away to within a gnat's nadger of freedom. However, Bikov who is initially swept aside by the team comes back to take control of operations and by the time Viktor escapes for every, the team is dead. Blasted to bits, literally.

Viktor and his lady live happily ever after but not in any grand way and the team is mourned for a while.

If you have never read a Chris Ryan style book then you will probably like this book. It is not a bad book, I have left some characters and episodes out. For me, though, as someone who has read a few of this type of book, it's an also ran.

 

© Duncan Williamson
2nd March 2007

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