Red Corona by Tim Glister

 

Set primarily in London in 1961, this is an old-school spy novel reminiscent of classic John le Carré.

Richard Knox is a senior MI5 officer under a cloud of suspicion. He doesn't have the traditional public school background of most of the service at the time (MI5 recruit more broadly now and things have reputedly changed), and is the protégé of James Holland, the Director General. He's long suspected a mole within the service, and has his suspicions who it might be. But when Holland ends up in a coma, his wife having discovered him unconscious and unresponsive at home, he's hung out to dry.

When two Italians of interest to MI5 are murdered in their London home, the new acting DG, Gordon Manning, and his right-hand man, Nicholas Peterson, set Knox investigating their deaths. Manning is well aware Knox suspects him of being the traitor, and so from the outset Knox is wary the DG is setting him up to fail.

The plot of Red Corona revolves around two pieces of technology, an innovative MI5 bugging technology which they fear the Russians have got hold of, and American spy satellites. MI5 wants to keep their surveillance technology out of the hands of both the Russians and the Americans (the latter, because if the Americans have it, the British will have no information to trade with in return for US information) while the American satellite technology they are unaware of until late in the story. The Italians had details of the British technology in their possession when they died, which causes Knox to fear the worst, and his investigations lead him to discover a conspiracy far more perilous than the one he imagined.

Both technologies that are at the heart of the plot are harbingers of the global surveillance technology in use today, and reading this book it's quaint to see what technology was in use and how far things have come. It's also frightening to realise how intrusive the abilities of the modern agencies are. Indeed, Knox can see the portents of the future, and worries in particular about the US satellite system once he learns of it.

Red Corona is a claustrophobic cold war spy thriller which captures the age period well. It's tightly plotted and engaging. This is a novel originally set for publication in 2020, but like many titles, its publishers delayed its release because of the pandemic. Indeed, I've had an advance copy for almost a year now, (as I'm sure have other reviewers). This is a great novel which deserves to sell well, and now it's finally hitting the bookshelves, I can highly recommend it.

4 out of 5 stars