Watchman: A Novel - Hardcover

Rankin, Ian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 031600913X ISBN 13: 9780316009133

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2007

Synopsis

From #1 international bestseller Ian Rankin, an unlucky spy gets one last chance at redemption.

Miles Flint is a spy who has been making some serious mistakes. His last assignment led to the death of a foreign official in London, and after getting too close to his current subject he wound up in police custody. But something is wrong at the agency that has nothing to do with Miles' errors. Why did his last suspect know more about Miles' assignment than Miles did? Why have so many operatives recently resigned?

Despite the Director's assurances, Miles begins his own investigation, to the dismay of his colleagues and even his own wife. Then Miles is sent to Belfast on a routine mission, a mission that confirms his darkest suspicions -- and threatens his life.

About this title

About the Author

Ian Rankin is a #1 international bestselling author. Winner of an Edgar Award and the recipient of a Gold Dagger for fiction and the Chandler-Fulbright Award, he lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, with his wife and their two sons.

Reviews

Before he became known for his Inspector Rebus series, Ian Rankin was a newly married writer trying his hand at spy novels. Watchman reveals a master at the start of his game. Inspired by John le Carré and Graham Greene, Rankin’s espionage novel is strong on enthusiasm, timing, and plot. Critics attribute its imprecise dialogue and characterizations to an inexperienced, albeit talented, writer. "The coolly analytical Flint was ditched after his first assignment. Now was that fair?" asks The New York Times Book Review, reflecting general sentiment that Watchman is pretty good, just not as good as the Rebus series. "Maybe not, if you happen to like dull but honorable Graham Greene-like spies who find themselves struggling to maintain their equilibrium in a society imploding from violent civil unrest."
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

Fans of Rankin's Inspector Rebus series (The Naming of the Dead, etc.) will welcome the U.S. publication of his second novel, a stand-alone spy thriller from 1988 that contains Rebus-like elements. Miles Flint has been a successful middle manager in the shadowy ranks of British intelligence until recent mistakes, including a botched surveillance of an Arab assassin, put his career and reputation in jeopardy. Suspecting that the killer evaded him because of a tip from one of his own, Miles launches his own mole hunt, casting himself in a role that's uncomfortably active for him—especially as his search leads back to his wife, Sheila. And Miles's doings seemingly strike a nerve within the organization, getting him dispatched on a perilous IRA bombing-related mission. Rankin creates plausible and fascinating characters in a manner that seems effortless (as in Miles's tic of comparing people to different kinds of beetles). While the elements of the denouement will strike some as gimmicky, it's clear that if Rankin had devoted his gifts to spy fiction rather than mysteries, he would still have been a hit.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 031600913X
• ISBN 13: 9780316009133
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272