Piers Paul Read - The Villa Golitsyn

Rating: 2/5

Review:
Disappointing

Piers Paul Read's books passed me by the first time around so I was glad to have an opportunity to try one, but although The Villa Golitsyn began rather well, I wasn't very keen overall.

First published in 1981 and set in 1979, the book begins with a good espionage thriller set-up as Simon Milson, a middle-ranking civil servant in the Foreign Service is sent to Nice to stay with Willy, an old school friend whom he has not seen for years, in order to determine whether the friend was responsible for passing secrets to the enemy fifteen years ago.  From here on, it is largely a novel of character as the various, slightly oddly assorted, guests interact with Willy and, to some extent, each other.  There is a convincing picture of an intelligent, charismatic man disintegrating in alcoholism, with some interesting, if a little clunky, discussions of morals, ethics and so on. 

It's decently written and competently enough done, but I found that things flagged badly by half-way and the second half became something of a slog.  There is a lot of description of the area, an awful lot of detailed (often quoted) political writing which may have influenced Willy and so on, which eventually seemed designed to show off how much research Read had done rather than to enhance the book.  I wasn't convinced by the motivations or relationships which developed, there is some rather lazy stereotyping of an American visitor (and some unpleasantly misogynistic writing about her body which seemed to me to come from the author, not just his characters), a somewhat implausible climax and so on. 

Also, given some of the content, have to question the taste of reissuing this book after Savile, Operation Yew Tree and all that has emerged in the last decade.  I fully accept that books are of their time and I wouldn't wish to suppress it in any way, but I do wonder about the decision actively to revive and market it.

So, a disappointment for me, I'm afraid, and I won't be returning to Piers Paul Read.

(I received an ARC via Netgalley.)