William Boyd, The Predicament. Penguiin Viking hb 2025. 259 pp. Personal copy

A sequel to last year’s Gabriel’s Moon, about which I posted a brief note HERE, this is the second in a projected trilogy of novels about ‘accidental spy’ Gabriel Dax. In the previous novel Gabriel is sucked into the murky world of MI6 espionage by his dodgy brother.

This time round Gabriel still harbours a passion for his spy boss, Faith, but it’s very much an on-off relationship, and he’s more stuck on her than she seems to be on him. There are several situations in this novel, again rather too heavy on plot twists and mysterious, duplicitous characters, when they seem to be getting closer, but then she drifts away again, aloof and inscrutable. Gabriel moons (sorry about the pun) like a teenager.

The central spy plot is again very complicated. Gabriel is playing a dangerous game with the Russians, who pay him handsomely for information, unaware (or are they?) that he’s a double agent. He goes to various exotic destinations again, gets caught up in murders and political plots, initially involving CIA machinations in Guatemala, and then a planned assassination attempt on JFK in Berlin.

As an amateur, reluctant spy who constantly wishes he could just focus on his primary career as a travel writer, Gabriel is remarkably resourceful and astute when he finds himself in sticky situations as a result of his espionage. Despite his obsession with Faith, he has some flirtatious moments with a number of other women with whom he comes into contact in his guise as an MI6 ‘unit’ (less established and prestigious than an agent).

It’s a competent piece of genre spy fiction in the manner of le Carré with hints of Ian Fleming (Boyd is the author of a James Bond ‘continuation’ novel), Graham Greene and even Frederick Forsyth, but there are some of that genre’s clichés and stereotypes, and several over-stated ‘how do I get out of this mess’ situations. There are too many scenes in which Gabriel questions his involvement in the spy game, or asks rhetorically what is happening in his missions – his apparent bemusement becomes tiresome.

There’s an excessive amount of background detail, too, over and above what’s strictly necessary to establish the multiple international and domestic settings, or the early 60s setting (lots of smoking and heavy drinking, and unreconstructed masculinity). We get detailed descriptions of what the characters are wearing in almost every situation they appear in.

It’s an entertaining enough read, but probably best suited to those who have more of a taste for spy thrillers than I do.