"If ever there were a land in need of men adept in the black arts of espionage, betrayal, and subversion, it was England; faction-ridden, ungovernable, outnumbered, hand-tied, outspoken England."
I like to pair reading nonfiction with fiction and once again, I tried to coordinate a motif between the two like I did for the Russian Civil war. Espionage is as old as Old Testament Biblical times and perhaps even older, so it's no surprise that Queen Elizabeth I in the XVI century had a spy network who operated both within Britain and overseas. Her Majesty's Spymaster tells the story of her most trusted spy: Sir Francis Walsingham. We find England in the grips of a struggle for power between a Catholic pretendant to the throne in Scotland — Mary and her Protestant cousin — Queen Elizabeth in England.
The situation overseas is no less complicated as Catholic France and Spain plot invasion, war, and even the usurpation of the English throne by placing Mary on it. Protestant Flanders would be a natural ally but it's occupied by Spain; meanwhile, the Vatican pulls strings behind the scene, and Queen Elizabeth I calls on Sir Francis Walsingham's talents as a spy after his service as ambassador to France. His careful curation of double agent networks, his use of secret codes, and his clever and manipulative misinformation campaigns make him a pioneer in the dark art of espionage. Her Majesty's Spymaster is altogether a thrilling book, a glimpse into a decisive era which shaped alliances and rivalries across Europe.
Walsingham is described as Puritan, but not fanatical, wealthy, but always in danger of losing his wealth, powerful, but constantly being undermined by an indecisive monarch and envious and ambitious rivals within her court. All in all he is presented as a very courageous and competent character and certainly a patriot. This book is definitely worth a read, especially since much of the spy's toolkit still used today were first put to work by him.
The Syrian Civil War is one of those ongoing conflicts that the world seems to have simply forgotten about and is the setting for David McCloskey's Damascus Station. General David Patreus called this book the best spy novel he ever read, which makes me think he has not read a great many spy novels. Don't get me wrong, it's a very good book, but McCloskey is no Le Carré or Graham Greene, hell, he's not even a David Ignatius.
But enough about the general's apparent lack of literacy/taste — let's get to the plot: after a CIA operator is captured in Damascus, CIA spook Sam Joseph is dispatched to Paris to recruit a beautiful Syrian Palace official called Mariam Haddad. The two fall in love derailing the operation, Syrian rebels try to assassinate high ranking officials and almost take out Assad, and there's a ton of actionable spycraft like how to evade being followed and how to conduct a good dead drop.
The book is a fun read, definitely worth picking up regardless of my snarky comments! It has a great pace, and it gives the reader some good insights on how the CIA runs their agents and how incredibly complicated and brutal the Syrian conflict really is.
