{"id":3873,"date":"2024-09-19T18:36:57","date_gmt":"2024-09-19T18:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/?p=3873"},"modified":"2024-10-03T16:13:03","modified_gmt":"2024-10-03T16:13:03","slug":"gabriels-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/?p=3873","title":{"rendered":"Gabriel\u2019s Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his 2013 James Bond novel, Solo<\/em>, Boyd sent the iconic secret agent to 1969 Nigeria. While the protagonist of his new book shares Bond\u2019s love of good liquor and beautiful women, he is a reluctant spy, and the author here is interested in exploring the morally murky world of Cold War espionage, double dealings, political murders, and defections. It is August 1960, and British travel writer Gabriel Dax is interviewing Patrice Lumumba, the Prime Minister of the newly independent Republic of the Congo. Lumumba, who insists the interview be recorded, mentions that certain foreign powers aim to assassinate him. On the flight back to London, Gabriel notices an attractive older woman reading one of his travel books. Other odd incidents occur. Gabriel\u2019s editor cancels the Lumumba piece and demands his notes and tapes, which is not standard journalistic practice. Instead, Gabriel buries the tapes in his garden. The woman on the plane, Faith Green, turns up at Gabriel\u2019s door and asks him to do \u201csmall favors\u201d for MI6, similar to the ones he does for his elder brother, Sefton, in the Foreign Office. Gabriel initially refuses but falls under Faith\u2019s seductive spell and embarks on his first assignment in Spain. The writer is soon caught in a twisty labyrinth of lies and betrayals, and, like Michael Corleone in Godfather, Part III<\/em>, gets pulled back into the spy game each time he tries to extricate himself from the manipulative Faith\u2019s machinations. At the same time, Gabriel struggles to understand, through analysis, the childhood trauma\u2014his mother\u2019s death in a fire\u2014that has scarred his life. This first-rate complex and suspenseful historical thriller will resonate with fans of John le Carr\u00e9 and Alan Furst.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his 2013 James Bond novel, Solo, Boyd sent the iconic secret agent to 1969 Nigeria. While the protagonist of his new book shares Bond\u2019s love of good liquor and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[81,54,218,51],"class_list":["post-3873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-espionage","tag-historical","tag-post-world-war-ii","tag-thrillers"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/formidable\/4\/Moon-400x400.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/formidable\/4\/Moon-400x600.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Willy Williams","author_link":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/?author=7"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}