1947. Threadbare London endures the bleakest, coldest winter for decades. Food rationing is worse than during the war. Coal supplies run out. The Thames freezes over.
Against a background of black ice, blackouts and the black market, agent Peter Cotton is seconded to Operation Sea-snake. MI5 is in the grip of civil war; MI6 is riddled with traitors. Unsure who to trust – or even who is pulling the strings – Cotton, ever the outsider, must protect an atomic scientist caught up in a vicious homophobic witch-hunt, limit the damage caused by a bully-boy MP, rely on a rent-boy informer and, despite the murderous attentions of a couple of Glasgow razor boys, embark on a ruthless hunt of his own.
If I was to use a single word to describe my experience reading Aly Monroe’s latest spy thriller Icelight (Peter Cotton 3) it would be, quite simply, exhausting! In fact, to be fair, I’d also add magnificent and spellbinding to the mix but then that would class as three words and my opening line a wash! So why exhausting? Imagine going to the cinema and watching an incredibly complex film for three hours – I’m not talking James Cameron’s Titanic here – eating a cornetto in the interval and then doing it all again. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Icelight!
With a wonderfully evocative and intelligent narrative Aly Monroe paints a bleak picture of London in the late 1940’s. Hit by an energy sapping cold snap that finds Britain on her knees, the country is not only at the mercy of a harsh British winter but the lack of fuel and food rations combine to leave thousands out of work and struggling to stay warm. A class divide never more evident, money talks and while the affluent drink …
