40. – 503.) The Dying Light by Henry Porter – I had been long looking forward to Poter’s 5th book. His earlier quartet were excellent. The book gets off to a promising start with Kate Lockhart, a former intelligence officer and now a lawyer just returned to England from New York, mourning the death of her friend David Eyam. As she attends his funeral she finds she is his heir but his solicitor is attacked and documents stolen. There is troubling surveillance and extensive information being sought to register in a hotel. There is a Citizens Watch program that is quite intrusive. As she seeks to find out what happened she is shocked to learn David has faked his death and that the government has unbelievably extensive computer program spying on every English citizen. The Prime Minister, John Temple, is a blandly correct man with a Machiveallan core. Getting ready for an election he is ready to exploit a toxic algae problem. The thriller is unfortunately overshadowed by the Orwellian exploration of government invasion of privacy. It is really an update of 1984 set sometime in the near future. At times I found it hard to believe governments would spy on everyone but it is clearly possible. It was a good book but I found distracting the emphasis on upper level of political and bureaucratic government combining with private interests to pervasively enter people’s lives with closed circuity public cameras and computer searches. I will remember the book. Civil liberties continue to be threatened 60 years after 1984 was written. I have read 3 spy / intelligence novels from England in the past month. Stock and Porter have some optimism in their endings unlike the bleakness of Le Carre. (Sept. 30/09)
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Since reading the book the events of The News of the World scandal have occurred in England. The plot has become far more plausible.
40. – 503.) The Dying Light by Henry Porter – I had been long looking forward to Poter’s 5th book. His earlier quartet were excellent. The book gets off to a promising start with Kate Lockhart, a former intelligence officer and now a lawyer just returned to 
Bill - I understand what you mean about a mystery overshadowed by those larger questions and themes. But as you say, these things are not impossible and the implications of government monitoring of citizens are so profound and important that maybe it's not a bad thing that they are raised. I know this sort of thing has been feared, debated, discussed, etc. in the U.S. for a long time, and it's a real issue. Just how much right does the government have, and under what circumstances, to monitor a law-abiding citizen? And what measures (if any) can/should be taken to ensure a reasonable amount of privacy. Important stuff to ponder...
ReplyDeleteMargot: I agree the theme is important. Unfortunately, I found the focus on government spying of its citizens overwhelmed the story. I think the author could have written a solid work of non-fiction about the topic rather than trying to work it into a thriller.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Angler, the biography of Dick Cheney, it was clear the government does not care about personal privancy.