The Madness of July
A Thriller
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The Madness of July is set in the late 1970s, and takes place during six sweltering days in the month that gives the book its title. Will Flemyng was trained as a spy for a life behind enemy lines, but now he is in politics—and rising to the top. But when a bizarre death starts to unravel some of the most sensitive secrets of his government, Will is drawn back into the shadows of the Cold War and begins to dance with danger once more. Buffeted by political forces and the powerful women around him, and caught in interlocking mysteries he must disentangle—including a potentially lethal family secret—Flemyng faces his vulnerability and learns, through betrayal and tragedy, more truth about his world than he has ever known. Â Masterfully weaving together espionage, political intrigue, and family drama, James Naughtie has written a spy novel for the ages, worthy of comparison to the finest work of Charles McCarry and Robert Littell.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Reporter Naughtie (The Accidental American: Tony Blair and the Presidency) makes his fiction debut with a nuanced, character-driven spy thriller set over six days in the late 1970s. When a clerk stumbles on a dead American in a House of Parliament cupboard, trouble ensues because on the body are the name and phone number of ex-spy Will Flemyng, now a minister in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. During a weekend trip to his boyhood home in Scotland, Will meets with his brother Abel Grauber, a U.S. political operative who has taken their mother's maiden name to distance his career from the careers of Will and their other brother, Mungo, who has unearthed a secret that could rip apart already strained family bonds. Copious amounts of dramatic dialogue speeds the story along. While the plot rambles at times, the slow discovery of who is trying to destroy Will and why is irresistible.
