Review - Argylle

Remember the popular television show Castle about a bestselling novelist who rides along/shadows a NY city homicide detective to get inspiration for his next crime series?  Remember how actual novels were written to tie into the television show under the name Richard Castle?  Today I review the novel spinoff from the recent movie Argylle staring Henry Caville, Samuel L Jackson, Bryan Cranston, and Sam Rockwell that is the same situation as the Castle inspired novels.  The movie was conceived... and then the book became a marketing tactic or extension of the movie.  The movie concept is a popular author of spy novels, Elly Conway, is in the eye of the CIA for how plausible the plots are in her novel.  

There was some excitement for a hot minute over who was the actual author until it was revealed that Australian novelist and screenwriter Terry Hayes and British author Tammy Cohen  wrote the book under the pseudonym Elly Conway at the request of  Director Matthew Vaughn (Kingsman: Secret Service).

Let's find out how the book does on its own as a spy novel.  FYI, I will be watching the movie and reviewing it shortly, but I wanted to read the book first.  It is rumored the book will be a series, but I will list it as standalone for now.

Author: Elly Conway

Copyright: Jan 2024 (Bantam) 384 pgs

Series: Standalone at this point

Sensuality: some violence, not graphic

Mystery Sub-genre: Espionage, spy, intrigue

Main Character: Aubrey Argylle, Parents were hippies who were killed when he was a teen, living in a shack leading tours to Budhist temple in Thailand then recruited by CIA

Setting: Modern day, Thailand Jungle, Poland, Germany, Monaco, Greece

Obtained Through: Personal purchase

 

Book Blurb:  "One Russian magnate's dream of restoring a nation to greatness has set in motion a chain of events which will take the world to the brink of chaos. Only Frances Coffey, the CIA's most legendary spymaster, can prevent it. But to do so, she needs someone special.

Enter Argylle. His life came to a crashing halt as a teenager. Since then he has been treading water, building barriers between himself and the world. Until one moment of compassion and brilliance will bring him to the attention of the most powerful woman in the secret world.

Coffey knows all about Argylle's dark past. She knows it haunts him. But she also knows it may give him the skills to join the team going up against one of the most powerful men in the world. His crash course in espionage will take him from the jungles of Thailand to the boulevards of Monaco, from the monasteries of Mount Athos to a forgotten cavern buried deep in the mountains.

It is a deathly rollercoaster ride that will either make him - or break him..."

My Thoughts:  

Aubrey Argylle is a slacker living a bare-bones existance until events show he has everything necessary to be a successful spy.  Frances Coffey, struggling to stop smoking thoughout, lives and breathes the job. She started in the file room and worked her way up to director.  This isn't a 007 lone operative situation, Aubrey has to work within a 12 person team.  Vasily Federov, soul-less Russian Oligarch characterized with "dead" eyes and a vicious calculating nature, is the world threat.  Federov is, to me at least, a Putin character that was changed just enough to not get slapped for using him.  His dead eyes and ruthlessness are in line with prior KGB cut throat who throws opponents out windows.

  The first several chapters are about how Aubrey Argylle gets recruited by the CIA, then training with the twelve member team. It is an established team with Aubrey replacing one team member who had been imprisoned a few months prior for spying against the US, so everyone's on edge.  Aubrey is a loner mostly and has a hard time learning to work as a team, and many on the team don't like nor trust Aubrey.  I liked seeing how this long-haired slacker gets recruited into the CIA and then what it took to get the team dynamic to work.

Thriller and espionage novels get a bad reputation as being all flashy plot and not much character development.  I'll grant you that this book wasn't primarily character focused, but it had enough to give Argylle some depth when it came to his childhood and his untraditional parents.  It was also enough for me to be vested in Frances Coffey as the spy-master.  Could there have been more time spent on character development, perhaps, but it might have slowed the story down too much.

This is a case of a traditionally published book with poor editing.  There were several instances of missed typos and such. If such occurances are a deal-breaker to you, don't read the book.  I noticed them but it didn't stop my enjoyment of the rest of the book.  There are occurances of European spelling usage and since an Australian and a Brit wrote it, I'll give them that.  The emphasis isn't on pretty prose either.

It has plenty of action, suspense, a twist or two, and character rivalry.  Secret codes and risky assignments keep the pacing rocketing along.  Chapters change point-of-view, but I like that style to keep it exciting.  It shows how a US versus Russia cold war never really ended with the Berlin wall coming down, only changed the nature of the cold war to a more modern version.

To some degree the legendary Russian Amber Room (called the eighth wonder of the world) is part of the plot, and it fascinated me enough to look into the history of it further.  That is a compliment to the authors that it was presented in a way that made history interesting.

Rating: Good - A fun read I found very entertaining. The errors might throw some people, but the plot and characters were well done with excellent pacing.

Here is a short video on the amazing Amber Room.

Thank you for reading this blog and please recommend to friends and family who will enjoy it.