Liar's Game

The third in The Frenchman series, written by a pseudonymous author with real life experience in French Intelligence this is a modern day espionage series, with all the tradecraft and real-life emotional ups and downs you'd ever want to read about, informed by some frighteningly current threats and plotlines.

For anyone new to this series, there's a quote towards the end that pretty well sums it all up:

Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men. And weak men create hard times.

Ponder on that in light of the geo-political clusterfuck that we're living through right now...

In LIAR'S GAME the threat is global and financial, with western powers shaping up against Chinese interference in financial systems, all geared around the rising influence, and wealth of India in particular. It all kicks off when a North Korean man walks into the French embassy in Beijing, claiming knowledge of a massive planned cyberattack targeting the world's economic and banking systems. There's a bit of disquiet when Alec De Payns team and department are particularly asked for to exfiltrate the asylum seeker from China back to France, but nobody quite twigs why or how deep that reason is buried until it's almost way too late.

As always, whether or not de Payn or Aguilar (his service pseudonym), knows exactly why he's been tasked to anything, he and his team do their job. Their tradecraft is tight, their ability to plan and react superb, and yet, somehow their walk-in dies. And then things get rapidly much worse. Turns out that the Chinese grab for world power is not the only game in play.

You won't have to have read the earlier two novels to step into The Frenchman series at this point, but it certainly would help. The ongoing internal battle that de Payn has with the dangers of his job, his responsibilities to his family (wife Romy and two sons), and the sheer tension of a job that is so dangerous, and so unpredictable are foremost in all these novels, but even more so in this one. Right from the start it feels like this is the beginning of something new, that de Payn may not come out of this one alive, given that the threats are coming from all sides, and who he can trust gets murkier and murkier. Romy is also on the edge, having had more than enough of the fallout from the job - de Payn's paranoia, tension, nightmares, and his unpredictable schedule is putting too much pressure on her, on top of having to be the mostly present parent, despite his best efforts. 

Everything, therefore is tense, and the first almost half of this novel is doing a lot of heavy lifting in setting up the complicated mission scenario, whilst getting deep into de Payn's personal situation and his head - which is increasingly a difficult place to be. Whilst his tradecraft, and the "personal rules" by which he plays are still very much in evidence, there's a lot of doubt here as well. Why did the North Korean man die in the airport on his way out of the country, accompanied only by de Payn, making the Frenchman the obvious suspect? Why did another man die in a hotel room in Vietnam leaving de Payn again, as the only logical suspect? Why is de Payn's boss seemingly fighting for the survival of their section, and what are the political machinations going on in France, whilst the global financial system is coming under increasing pressure from two distinct groups of countries? And what is the source and target of that cyberattack that was being hinted at. 

There is obviously considerable expertise at the heart of these novels, this author knows his stuff, and is writing about a life that he's lived. He rarely lets that get in the way of telling a ripping yarn however, even though, as mentioned, the start of this one is building a lot of context into the action to come. Once the mission really reaches a telling point, the pace, the threat, the feats of daring and the thinking, plotting, planning, and extremes that intelligence agencies go to, to thwart the intentions of others is breathtaking, as are the potential consequences. There's nothing lone wolf about de Payn though, he's the central character, but there's a team of very good people around him, with the surprise return of one character from the earlier stories that will delight followers of the series.

Where or how, or even why an intelligence agent as experienced as de Payn goes after this novel, or even what will be his role, is another question altogether, and, as with each of these stories, it seems there's not a lot left in the tank, but in this one in particular, you have to wonder where to from here.