Angus Ross (1) (1927–2004)

Found a yellowing copy at a Friends of the Library sale and picked it up because I'd been to Burgos and its cathedral. Farrow doesn't spend a lot of time in Burgos but does drive all over northern Spain trying to track down and take out a sharp KGB agent who happens to be a woman. Might have helped to understand the story better if I had background knowledge of Spanish political history. But otherwise, even though this isn't my preferred genre, the book wasted no time getting started and Farrow appeals as an average Joe's James Bond.… (mere)

I first read this book about thirty-five years ago, when I had just moved to Leeds as a student. Back then I enjoyed it as a fairly fast-moving adventure romp reminiscent of Desmond Bagley or Alistair Maclean. This time I was less impressed.

The book is narrated by Mark Farrow, a member of an unspecified intelligence agency, who has been called upon to investigate the leak of technological secrets from a licensed manufacturer based in Leeds. As with Bagley’s and Maclean’s, Ross’s book is wholly plot driven – there is no attempt to develop any of the characters. Indeed, no cliché is knowingly overlooked, and in addition to some ‘professional’ northerner’s disdain for Londoners there is a smattering of homophobia, and a gun slinging American security man.

It wasn’t all bad, though. Ross’s description of Leeds rings true to my memories of the city, and there is a marvellous description of Bryan’s fish and chip shop on Weetwood Lane (rather feebly disguised as ‘Bryant’s’ of ‘Wheetwood Lane’).

Still, time moves inexorably on and while this book may well have been in tune with its own time of the late 1970s, it hasn’t aged very well.… (mere)