I read this book for the Vintage Mystery Bingo Reading Challenge 2015.
The challenge is to read 6 or more Vintage Mysteries. All novels must have been
originally written between 1960 and
1989 inclusive and be from the mystery category.
I read this for
the category S-3 “Featuring a Crime other than Murder”
A homicide does occur in this novel but as it is at the
end, the killing does not play a central role.
The Arena –
William Haggard, 1961
In this novel, the merchant bank known as Bonavias is
insensibly declining. However, a parvenu competitor approaches them, offering an
amount 20% over Bonavias’ market value. Col. Russell must become interested
when he learns that also part of the deal is a research start-up called
Radarmic. There is suspicion that an unfriendly power wants access to the radar
technology Radarmic is developing. The rep of the unfriendly power would
certainly stoop to violent means to take over the bank and the
start-up.
Haggard, an Englishman, was an intelligence officer in
India during WWII and then worked in Whitehall after the war. So he has the knowledge
and experience that we trust in a writer of highly intelligent crime and
espionage stories. A Tory through and through, he understands the
Establishment, despises most politicians, and sees anybody left of center as
wooly, ineffective, and prone to be covetous of other people’s money and power.
He’s also clear-headed about the hazards faced by middle-aged men, such as
overrating the role of brains in career advancement and day to day life, and the snares of
appetites for alcohol, women, honors, and property.
His series hero was Col. Charles Russell, head of the
Security Executive. The department minds odd security issues that fall in the
grey areas amongst other departments, in border regions where no clear authority
to act exists. Anybody who has worked in a biggish bureaucracy, especially one
that oversees numerous smaller units, will be able to relate to the amount
and kind of information gathering (spying) and diplomatic interplay
(persuading) with which Col. Russell and his trusty sidekick, Major Mortimer, must
deal.
Russell is a cheerful stoic who maintains his cool in
stressful situations. His attention is attracted when the ordinary patterns are
disturbed. He thinks logically, but assumes logic will not be enough to explain
or predict what people will eventually do. Russell doesn’t do much except
think, assign and talk to people of interesting clubs and office. He spends
much time being perplexed. I don’t know how Haggard makes this fascinating and
un-put-downable. But he does.
Back in the day, Haggard’s novels were not popular in the US, though critics often praised his work as “James Bond for adults.” Haggard’s ability to take the reader into the closed worlds of research, government offices, criminal syndicates and spymasters is irresistible. At least to readers who like John le Carré, John Bingham, Emma Lathen, or Alan Furst.
