WWII Spy Thriller w/ Heroine

The Smiler with the Knife – Nicholas Blake

In this 1939 spy thriller, the series hero Nigel Strangeways stays in the background while his wife, Georgia Cavendish, takes on a dangerous assignment from Nigel’s Uncle John of Scotland Yard. A renowned traveler on the order of Rosita Forbes, Georgia is eminently qualified to be an adventure heroine. She’s brave and resourceful. She’s quick-thinking enough to draw mental maps of the lay of the land and to make snap judgements of whether people are trustworthy.

Uncle John Strangeways is the head of domestic counter-intelligence for Scotland Yard. He has grave concerns that a secret group called English Banner has plans to foment economic and civil unrest, undermine the confidence of the people in democracy, and install a strongman who will claim, “I alone can fix it.”

Uncle recruits Georgia to infiltrate the group. "It's somewhere among the rich families that we've got to look for the centre of the movement," Sir John says. "You're a legend yourself: this movement would be glad to make use of you." She is dismayed about self-serving politicians acting in ways that lead the people to be so disgruntled with democracy in the first place, but she loves her country. She agrees to infiltrate the stupid but dangerous right-wing group.

Though she hates pretending to break up with her husband, she hangs out with the land-owning, tax-hating, servant-griping, regulation-detesting, socialism-decrying class and their enabling minions among the cops, mechanics, and contractors.

(I know, I know. It all feels sooooo familiar.) 

Georgia is a great character, fully realized in her ability to keep cool even while tired and hard-pressed. The other finely drawn character is the leader of the fascist group. His narcissism borders on the insane, but egotism doesn’t stop him being cunning and charismatic.

(Just keep telling yourself: It can't happen here.)

Taking a cue from writers of adventure tales like Rider Haggard and John Buchan, Blake effectively propels the story, moving deftly between scenes of action.  The unfolding of the plot is so skillful that we don't mind that the fascists seem to have a supernatural ability to track Georgia as they ruthlessly pursue her across Northern England.