How To Betray Your Country by James Wolff

Following on from the acclaimed debut novel Beside the Syrian Sea, this is the second title in a planned trilogy about loyalty and betrayal in the modern world.

An authentic thriller about the thin line between following your conscience and following orders. James Wolff is the pseudonym of a young English novelist who “has been working for the British government for the last ten years”.

Things are looking bad for disgraced spy August Drummond. In emotional free fall after the death of his wife, fired for a series of security breaches... and now his neighbor on the flight to Istanbul won’t stop talking. The only thing keeping August sane is the hunch that there’s something not quite right about the nervous young man several rows ahead – a hunch confirmed when August watches him throw away directions to a European cemetery seconds before being detained by Turkish police. A reckless August decides to go to the cemetery, where he meets a mysterious figure from the dark heart of the Islamic State and quickly finds himself drawn into a shadowy plot to murder an Iranian scientist in Istanbul.

But nothing is what it seems, and before long August realizes he has gone too far to turn back. As he struggles to break free from the clutches of Islamic State and play off British intelligence against their Turkish counterparts, he will find his resourcefulness, ingenuity and courage tested to the very limit of what he can endure.

About the author.

James Wolff is an exciting new voice in literary thriller writing. He grew up in the Middle East and now lives in London. He has worked for the British government for the past ten years.

Review.

I wasn’t too sure I was going to like this book from the first couple of pages that constituted an official report with no line breaks. But my I’m glad I carried on as what I got was a spy novel with a difference, an agent who was no longer an agent but acted like one, a slow burn of a book which explodes towards the end! Also it was hilarious. Even by the end I was loving those reports as they showed so much of the character’s personalities. Now I didn’t realise that this was a sequel to his book ‘Beside the Syrian Sea’ but it can definitely be read as a stand-alone. This was was righteous, disgraceful, funny, serious, thrilling and a genius look at the security services of the world! I loved it.

August is on a flight to Istanbul to start a new job as he has just been sacked as an agent in the British security services. He wife has just died and he neighbour on the plane won’t stop talking. Even though he is drinking straight gin from the duty free bottle his spy skills are tingly about the passenger in 34c. He is jumpy, checks his rucksack in the locker all the time. August is suspicious but 34c is arrested when the plane lands but August finds a note with a liaison and meeting and decides to throw caution to the wind and meet who he suspects is an IS recruiter. However, he soon gets sucked into a world he no longer wanted to be a part of!

I loved the character’s in this book, especially August and Youssef! They made quite the comedy duo. However, there were nuances in both characters that was delightful to read. Youssef and his playboy tie was a great reference to the family man who was just desperate to get out of Syria. August and his mental breakdown from losing his wife. Both were handled with empathy and I just wanted the best for these characters.

I know I and a lot of bloggers will put ‘oooh I loved this and will certainly go and read the rest of the series’ but then it gets put on a never-ending tbr pile and forgotten about. However, I ordered the first book as soon as I finished this one and have already carved out time in the coming weekend to read it. I think I loved the fact that there was no big plot with teams from different powers fighting against one another. I enjoyed how it was isolated figures really who although their actions didn't matter on a grand scale of things they mattered to the people they were helping. Maybe, these and the story itself comes from a place of frustration since the author is using an alias and works in the UK government.

If you have the same taste in books as me you are not going to regret reading this one. Maybe the best spy book I have read in years.