{"id":7318,"date":"2018-06-26T06:15:32","date_gmt":"2018-06-26T10:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7318"},"modified":"2018-06-26T06:15:32","modified_gmt":"2018-06-26T10:15:32","slug":"beside-the-syrian-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7318","title":{"rendered":"****Beside the Syrian Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Beirut,

photo: Jonhy Blaze, creative commons license<\/p><\/div>\n

By James Wolff \u2013 When reading this British spy thriller, you may feel that, like the protagonist, you\u2019ve gone for a stroll in a dangerous section of town and found yourself in over your head.<\/p>\n

Jonas\u2019s father, part of a church delegation visiting Syria, has been kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists, who demand a $100 million ransom for the 75-year-old cleric. Father and son have been a bit at odds, but despite that\u2014or because of it\u2014Jonas has vowed to rescue him.<\/p>\n

Jonas did work for the MI6, yes, but in a desk job. His tradecraft is thin and contacts are few. Thus does Wolff put Jonas and his exploits in the realm of the doable. He makes decisions and takes actions an ordinary person, as opposed to an espionage superhero, might\u2014a believable, somewhat erratic, and doubt-ridden character, easy to identify with and root for.<\/p>\n

The story starts in a seedy Beirut bar, where Jonas seeks the help of the middle-aged former priest Tobias, who has previously negotiated the release of terrorist-held hostages. Jonas doesn\u2019t tell him everything, wondering \u201chow it had come to pass unnoticed that deceit had been worn into him like grooves in a record until all he could play were false notes.\u201d Tobias is reluctant to get involved, but he has an interest in a woman named Maryam also stuck in Syria. Jonas says, if he helps, \u201cwe\u2019ll get her out.\u201d We?<\/p>\n

Because this shaky rescue mission has no official standing, he\u2019s unlikely to deliver on this promise, or on any of the commitments he ultimately makes with Hezbollah representatives, the espionage establishment, and anyone else he thinks can help him. You feel you\u2019re mounting a wobbly tower made of playing cards, a fragile edifice that may collapse at any moment.<\/p>\n

MI6 sends the tennis-playing Desmond Naseby to befriend and spy on Jonas and persuade him to give up his efforts. Naseby is quickly followed by CIA case office Harvey Deng. Deng is all business, aggressive and profane, but Jonas and Naseby banter amusingly. Says Naseby, \u201cYou can\u2019t stand to be cooped up. Smell of the sea, bustle of the bazaars.\u201d \u201cThwack of the tennis racket,\u201d responds Jonas.<\/p>\n

Edward Snowden taints the narrative like a malevolent spirit when it dawns on MI6 higher-ups that Jonas may have availed himself of some of the secret reports he\u2019s been reading at his desk all those years. When it appears he is trying to trade a USB drive for his father, they give his case the operational name LEAKY PIPE and, well, panic sets in.<\/p>\n

What keeps the pages turning in this highly entertaining tale, is that, like Jonas\u2019s MI6 and CIA opponents, you can never be quite sure how much he really knows, what his strategy really is, or even if he has one. As a result, the outcome of his dangerous mission might succeed or, as seems much more likely, go disastrously wrong.
\n<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By James Wolff \u2013 When reading this British spy thriller, you may feel that, like the protagonist, you\u2019ve gone for a stroll in a dangerous section of town and found yourself in over your head. Jonas\u2019s father, part of a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"****Beside the Syrian Sea - loved this protagonist's shambling manner. Reminded me of a young Columbo!","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[193,40,126,359,32],"tags":[1342,1343,1344,113,323,129],"class_list":["post-7318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-espionage","category-fiction","category-reading-2","category-review","category-thriller","tag-beside-the-syrian-sea","tag-james-wolff","tag-mi6","tag-middle-east","tag-terrorism","tag-wars-and-conflicts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1U2","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7318"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7320,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7318\/revisions\/7320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}