Put Agatha Christie and Ed McBain and John Le Carre in a blender and the result will be Peter Spiegelman’s astonishing A Secret About a Secret (2022). Set in a creepy rural campus of what was a private school in England, the shadowy Ondstrand Biologic company alerts the Government when one of its key researchers, the beautiful Dr. Allegra Stans, is discovered dead in a walk-in refrigerator.
Because of the secret projects at Ondstrand Biologic, the murder is not reported to the local police. Instead, an agent of the dreaded Standard Division arrives to investigate the murder. Agent Myles starts by putting together a profile of the murdered scientist. Allegra Stans was a brilliant, gifted researcher who also was an obsessive runner. She formed a runners club and other scientists joined. Allegra Stans slept with many of the members of the runners club. Myles discovers a trail of ex-lovers–some who loved Allegra…and some who hated her.
Learning what Allegra Stans did a Ondstrand Biologic proves problematic. The high security of the campus provides Myles will plenty of documentation and video of the comings and goings of various staff members. But, nothing shows how Allegra entered the building on the morning she was murdered.
Myles also finds clues that suggest Allegra Stans engaged in suspicious activity after she was transferred to a different lab in Ondstrand Biologic seven months before she was killed.
You can read A Secret About a Secret as a police procedural or a spy novel–it has elements of both. The plot includes some of Agatha Christie’s tricks so you’ll be mislead by red herrings more that once (I was!). I’m hoping Peter Spiegelman writes more novels featuring Agent Myles who possesses elements of Hercule Poirot and Jack Reacher. A Secret About a Secret is the best mystery I’ve read this year! GRADE: A
I have read and liked his earlier novels. I have a request in for this at my library.
Steve, I think you’ll really enjoy A SECRET ABOUT A SECRET.
Sounds good, George.
Patti, I couldn’t put A SECRET ABOUT A SECRET down.
Wow. I never heard of it before. OK, it’s on hold and I am #1 so it shouldn’t be long.
Jeff, you’ll find A SECRET ABOUT A SECRET intense and thrilling!
John le Carré doesn’t have a record of accomplishment of being enamoured by his fellow authors let alone journalists. Le Carré, Ian Fleming and Len Deighton did meet one another from time to time but apparently their meetings ended in near nuclear arguments about who was best equipped to write realistic espionage novels. It’s a shame all three focused on fiction but of course not one of them had first-hand experience of being a secret agent notwithstanding Fleming’s experiences in the Admiralty and le Carré’s in Five and Six until Kim Philby outed all le Carré’s agents operating in Europe. Of course, Philby and Oleg Gordievsky both knew Col Alan Pemberton (aka Mac, Bill Fairclough’s MI6 handler in The Burlington Files).
Fairclough aka Edward Burlington was the protagonist in The Burlington Files series and did have real life experience of being a secret agent albeit not focused so much on the USSR in the Cold War. Critics have likened Fairclough to a “posh or sophisticated Harry Palmer” which probably didn’t appeal to le Carré. We do know that Fairclough once contacted le Carré in 2014 to do a collaboration. Le Carré responded along the lines of “Why should I? I’ve got by so far without collaboration so why bother now?” A realistic response from a famous expert in fiction!
Sam, thanks for the info. I knew John le Carre was a bit of a prickly guy. Ian Fleming, once the Bond movies spurred sales of his books, became more aloof. Len Deighton never achieved the fame he deserved. I just found a copy of Deighton’s history of World War II and look forward to reading it this Summer.
Sounds good I’ll check if my library is getting an audio copy (CD)
I haven’t been even looking at this as for 13 of the last 14 nights, (and days) I”ve been at my friends house on puppy watch. She was over due and a visit to the vet sat. showed one still born puppy inside. He had an appt to take her in yesterday to remove the puppy, but sunday evening she started having deep contractions, the puppy’s head crowned and she was in pain, so he had to remove the puppy. The vet yesterday said she healed well, and to just have her finish the round of antibiotics.
That frees up august, so we’re going to try to go to Cleveland as he’s never seen the rockn roll hall of fame, and they have a good beatles exhibit
Maggie, I’m impressed by all the people you help! A trip to Cleveland is always fun!