| HARRY SULLIVAN'S WAR by Ian Marter |
| Story ? Synopsis: Harry is working out in the gym when he finds himself unexpectedly attacked. He's transferred to work on chemicals at Yarra, but meets a young lady called Samantha Shire who seems oddly interested in Van Gogh. Invited up to visit her, he is forced off the road near her home at Castle Mackie. Whilst a prisoner, he hears Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart divulging confidential information. He escapes back to London, but comes under suspicion of his new boss, Conrad Gold. He goes back to investigate at Castle Mackie, but is kidnapped again, and used in a chemical experiment. Narrowly escaping, he tries to find help, but is tailed by a helicopter. He narrowly makes it onto a train for London. This time he is gulled into making a rendez-vous at an art gallery, where Samantha's father's colleague demands he steal more samples of the chemical he's testing. Arrested by Special Branch, he is sprung so he can get the chemicals. Finding map co-ordinates, he traces a remote island where a burial mound is being used as a drop-off point for Gold and the crooks. He manages to co-ordinate a rendez-vous with Special Branch, where they catch Gold, but the others escape. Harry is ordered not to pursue further, but realising that the Van Gogh Society is meeting in Paris the next day, he realises he could catch the ringleaders at last. But in Paris, he gets a little drunk, and during a desperate struggle on the struts of the Eiffel Tower, he witnesses the chief crook plummet to his death. He returns home, where an old friend turns up to look after him. |
| Review:- In what must have been one of his last books, Ian Marter returns to the character of Harry Sullivan, crafting a complicated spy story involving chemical weapons and the Scottish countryside. Though a James Bond parody where the hero is a bit of a bungler might seem a fair description, I think the general "lone hero against conspiracy" is a genre that covers books like The Thirty-Nine Steps amongst others (and that includes rambling Scottish countryside and a gravity-defying conclusion too). So there's a solid setting for the book, and one which wouldn't work so well in normal Doctor Who narrative terms. The actual conspiracy seems at times both rather flimsy and rather firm - the EAR/ACHES bit is rather silly send-up, but the concerns over chemicals is all too serious. Whilst Harry is clearly sympathetic to their suggested anti-chemical claims, he would rather that complaints were made officially, rather than by force, as they prefer. So he has to oppose them on different grounds than the expected. But that's not a problem. Though few characters are involved, they vary from the hardly-described Waldo to the mischievous Samantha and the ludicrously stereotyped Rudolf Rainbow. Quite why Harry is so convinced of the Brigadier's complicity for so long seems strange - the evidence points more clearly to his retainer, Curly, and he himself is just as much a victim as Harry. The Brig A Dyr, meanwhile, seems a rather silly contrivance, but presumably if genuine then just something Marter felt the need to use up sometime. Sarah Jane's appearance is rather brief, but provides a key clue at the right time, as well as showing Harry might not be quite so alone after all. There are some loose ends that niggle. Harry is also hypnotised and gives up secrets - but nothing comes of it, or the other tapes Harry finds besides the one that implicates Gold. Harry's research shows side effects of pregnancy in a colleague, but that seems to taper off, too. The worst must the ending, where the sudden death of one of EAR/ACHES leads to the end of the book. Samantha's father remains free, it seems, as must the rest of the gang. It's tempting to wonder if a sequel of explanation was planned, but alas, it never came off, and Harry remains at the mercy of the likeable Esther Bland - well, it could be worse. He had to wait until System Shock for his comeback, though at least his professional life improved in the interim. The title is also rather silly - there must have been any number of better descriptive words for this plot than a "war". On the whole, though, whilst often silly, it is action-packed and exciting, as well as easy to follow. Harry remains the character viewers would remember from his telly adventures, and there are even brief nods to others too. So, a nice little read. |
| Disclaimer: I have a copy. |