Before his death in 1988, Louis L’Amour was a legend in the Western genre for decades with bestsellers such as Last of the Breed, Hondo and Shalako. Many of his novels became films, some of them classics. While Westerns where what he was known for, L’Amour wrote many short stories, including crime and fantasy, and left behind this surprising manuscript – a spy novel.
Now, his son Beau, a senior executive and editor in the film industry, has completed the book. In the postscript, Beau explains how he worked with his father in the past and how he eventually turned the unfinished work into a suspenseful Cold War thriller. With the rise of espionage fiction in our ever-uncertain world, Skyring Water may well be a timely release.
We find ourselves in Northern Spain in 1961. Mike Fowler is driving hell for leather into the Pyrenees in a borrowed 1955 Lancia Aurelia B20. Fast enough to stay well ahead of a tailing car but he isn’t running he’s leading the chasing Mercedes into a trap. He’s a decoy, taking the hunters away from his business partner, Anton Voss, giving him time to make his own escape.
When Fowler reaches a high enough perch he takes shots at his pursuers. Fowler is well aware they are trying to lead him into an ambush, probably somewhere before the French border. Eventually he makes it to Marseille and the warehouse where the next shipment of arms is ready to leave port. Fowler decides to go with the cargo of arms, tanks, ambulances.
The Cold War confrontation is ramping up, East and West are at each other’s throats. There are conflicts on every continent and the demand for weapons makes Sistemas Military a profitable business. The war in Algeria meant that the FLN and the unofficial militia were both looking for arms.
Fowler was hired by Anton Voss after World War II for protection, because of his military background. He has proven so vital that he has become a partner to the German expatriate scientist, a man with a dark past. The former US Navy salvage diver was trained by the OSS as an assassin. The two men have become unlikely friends after surviving an attack in the street that could have seen them both dead.
It’s not been plain sailing but their new trouble started a couple of months earlier in their Barcelona HQ, the pair falling foul of a group of unreconstructed Nazis known as The Brotherhood of the Invisible Reich, men ready to re-fight the War, should the opportunity arise.
Fowler is called to the warehouse by Voss and arrives just in time to hear two shots fired. He finds Voss with a gun standing over a figure slumped in a chair, the man is dead. Voss says it was attempted blackmail. Eventually, they have to run. From Marseilles to Caracas to a small deserted island off the coast of Patagonia with the French SDECE, CIA, Israeli intelligence and the Nazis all on their tail. The Hunt is on in one of the most inhospitable places in the world for 30 tons of stolen gold.
Skyring Water is an epic cat-and-mouse chase across continents, with a nod to the geopolitics of the time. It’s heavy on action, light on plot complexity. The strong storytelling keeps a long read moving at a healthy pace. One of the things Beau L’Amour tells us is that he added suspense to the plot and that makes this a solid beach read. It feels a little traditional as befits a tale written mid-Cold War, aiming to steal some of the Bond audience.
What it lacks in serious character development is made up for with breath-taking action. This is in the adventure mould of Alistair MacLean or Desmond Bagley. An escapist, globetrotting tale of heroes and villains, peppered with science and history.
Also see Goering’s Gold by Richard O’Rawe.
Bantam
Print/Kindle/iBook
£8.49
CFL Rating: 3 Stars
