Matthew Dunn draws on his personal experience as an MI6 agent for Spycatcher, the first book in his new series of Will Cochrane thrillers. "I was always told to write about what you know, and in my case what I know about is espionage," remarks Dunn in a video supplied by his U.K. publisher, Swordfish, which is publishing the book under an alternate title, Spartan.
Dunn's central character, Will Cochrane, is a British MI6 superspy with both a mission and a past. These intertwine in Spycatcher, which William Morrow will release in the U.S. on Aug. 9, 2011.
Will’s mission, Dunn informs his readers, is to prevent "a huge massacre, the likes of which the world has never seen." The mastermind behind this potential disaster goes by the name of Megiddo. He leads a group of Iranian terrorists called the Qods Force, a unit within the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Will plans to use Lana Beseisu, the journalist who was once Megiddo’s lover, to locate him and discover his exact target.
Coincidentally, Will learns that Megiddo was the man responsible for the death, decades earlier, of his own father. James Cochrane, also an MI6 agent, suffered years of imprisonment and torture during the Iranian Revolution as a result of his choice to sacrifice himself to save the lives of two of his colleagues.
Will and Lana begin a desperate hunt for Megiddo that takes them throughout Europe and the United States. Despite the effectiveness of the many chase scenes like these within Spycatcher, Dunn’s debut novel reveals many of the problems that can afflict beginning writers.
Spycatcher's main flaw is its author’s tendency to tell rather than to show – to lecture rather than to demonstrate. Regrettably, Dunn also combines such “telling” with the frequent use of surprisingly melodramatic language.
Early in the novel, Patrick, the CIA agent who along with Alistair, Will’s MI6 controller, is in charge of Will’s mission, explains Will’s motivation to him. "Alistair has warned me that your view your work as a means to take revenge against the tragedies of your early life," Patrick says. "He’s warned me that you never stop, that you make immense personal sacrifices, that you care nothing for rules or protocol, and that your compassion for the weak and innocent is balanced with and unflinching desire to slaughter evil."
Dunn continues this stylistic awkwardness in the scene in which Will and his sister, Sarah, meet at their mother’s grave. "I still see your huge heart, your compassion, your love, your sorrow, your humor and intelligence," Sarah tells Will, "But I also see a man who has become not just a loner but very lonely."
Dunn appears not to have realized that readers prefer discovering such traits from a character’s actions rather than having them recited. If he can incorporate that knowledge into his future books, Dunn's professional expertise should make the Will Cochrane series one worth following.
FTC disclosure: A review copy of this book was provided by its publisher, William Morrow.
Comments