IF YOU LIKE JOHN LE CARRÉ, YOU’LL LOVE DEREK MARLOWE‘A spy thriller that really thrills, that gets one in its clutches right at the start and keeps one there until the final twist of fate’ New York Times‘From the British Ministry to the Brandenburg Gate, every foot of the journey is paved with suspense and excitement…a tale that is just plain great’ Boston HeraldAlexander Eberlin is a small, … plain great’ Boston Herald
Alexander Eberlin is a small, faceless civil servant working for the Government at the height of the Cold War. As he nears middle age, he allows himself one luxury – to dress like a Dandy.
His superiors send him on a mission to hunt down and destroy a cold-blooded and vicious Russian assassin named Krasnevin, who is responsible for a number of British agents’ deaths.
But Eberlin has a secret – he is Krasnevin. This is the story of what happens when Eberlin is sent to destroy himself.
This classic, gripping spy novel is back in print fifty years after it was written, and is entrancing a whole new generation of readers.
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‘Like John le Carré at the top of his form’ Yorkshire Post
‘A great spy novel: beautifully written and with a melancholy soul beneath its wry humour’ Jeremy Duns, author of the Paul Dark novels
‘Near-compulsive reading’ Daily Mail
‘Brilliant and graceful’ Sir Tom Stoppard
‘A very well written, intelligent spy thriller’ The Observer
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It was after I started reading this that I realised it was written in the sixties. Having said that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this “ Cold War “ spy thriller.
Yes it was a bit slow to start , but then some books are. That didn’t stop my enjoyment of it. It reminded me of the tv series “ Spooks”.
Thoroughly recommend this.
Book didn’t end. Don’t like that
Boring, hard to follow, I gave up on it
Tongue in cheek old-fashioned spy thriller. Too many details. Often confusing. Liked the ending. Can you ever trust a spy?
This book is a vintage cold war spy novel, not a special ops shoot‘-em-up. It keeps you guessing. I wasn’t even sure I knew what was going on until the end. Better than a Lecarre. i will probably look for others by the author.
Too much detail slows it down but it is an interesting book
very boring and not interesting
Starts slow and gets so boring fell asleep three times in an hour.
too cute for me
Wonderful plot.
worthy of its classical standing.
I felt the story moved slowly and at times was hard to follow
Just couldn’t get into this booking, did not keep me engaged
Unless the author’s rather whimsical way of writing appeals to you, the book drags.
Author tried to make it an original and convoluted plot but didn’t really succeed. Pleasant holiday read!
This was not a good read. Kept waiting for it to improve. Got to the end and it was a major disappointment.
Very good Le Carre style
The story drags a bit but was ok reading before bed. I was a little disappointed that the main character was drunk a lot of the times and there was very little actual spy episodes.
In the tradition of the three great British spy-thriller authors, Ian Fleming, Len Deighton, and John LeCarre comes the Dandy in Aspic, off the pen of Reginald Hill. The impeccably tailored and accessorized protagonist, Alexander Eberlin, full-time double agent, Soviet plant, assassin, and part-time philosopher, who gets the assignment of a lifetime: to assassinate himself. Twist and turns, double twists and doglegs in the era of the hight of the Cold War, and especially when the British intelligence and counter-intelligence agencies were still rattled with the defection of the Oxford Five, Eberlin plays a cat-and-mouse game where the top prize is his life.
The opening aphorism of Alexander, in the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is probably in the circus, despite the paradox, seems to characterize his end when he finds out that he is the freak in the freakshow.
In today’s techno-infested spy thrillers were not that much is left to intelligence in the intelligence business, it is refreshing to go back to the good old days, which might be considered now old, but by no means were good.
On top of the thrill, the reader also enjoys an added bonus of sophisticated prose.
I pondered for a while the title. What is the dandy’s connection to the gelatinous delicacy? So much so that I looked up the word “aspic” in my trusted dictionary. Lo, and behold aspic in old English is also asp. There you go.
Much ado about nothing. The title character confuses his ennui and depression for the faddish deprecation of Western values in comparison with undefined Soviet virtues that was so ‘cool’ in the ’60s & ’70s.
Everything in the UK and West Berlin draws his cynicism and rejection in dandified and snobbishly English terms, but produces no evidence that he, Eberlin, has any idea of what he would prefer.
Not just a rebel without a cause, “Dandy” is a rudderless assassin hoping to escape a concentrated British manhunt for his alter ego, Krasnavin, the Soviet agent who has been killing British operatives, apparently, in droves. Plot holes and very low probability occurrences make for a lot of wandering in circles, eventually dropping the reader off at a twist ending that was trendy, but contrived.