No one joins the CIA for the money, which might explain the spate of thrillers now emerging from former officers. The latest addition, The Peacock and the Sparrow (No Exit Press, £7.99) by I. S. Berry, comes festooned with praise from other CIA officers turned authors.
Set in Bahrain during the Arab Spring, the novel is told in the first person by Shane Collins, a veteran CIA officer nearing the end of his tour there. Divorced, estranged from his son and engaged in a desultory affair with the wife of a colleague, Collins is weary. As his source Rashid declares: ‘This is your problem. You have no expectations… You are like this air. Empty.’ Rashid is one of the leaders of the increasingly restive dissidents in Bahrain, whose corrupt king lives distanced from his subjects. Collins is similarly dissatisfied with his own colleagues, who live in protected compounds and have little to do with ordinary Bahraini life.
Life changes for him when he meets and falls for the enigmatic Almaisa, a local artist who specialises in beautifully wrought mosaics. At the same time, Rashid starts to provide crucial information about the local rebels. This boosts Collins’s standing with his callow, gung-ho 28-year-old boss, the CIA’s youngest head of station, though Collins himself is increasingly disgusted by the Bahraini regime’s brutality. When, during an abortive uprising, he and Rashid kill a senior Bahraini official, Collins is drawn further into the complex web of the anti-government forces.
Berry’s subtle depiction of Bahrain is sufficiently detailed to disabuse anyone who thinks of the kingdom as an undifferentiated mass of sand and cement.
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in