An Agent of Deceit

Taut, intelligent, unflashy spy thriller which made me want to follow up on the writer's other novels. As a good thriller should, it starts slowly but then gradually builds to an unexpected (by me) climax. Ben Webster is definitely not a hero, but is not an anti-hero either. You are made, by the writer's skill to feel some sympathy for him and the other main protagonist, Richard Lock, but not too much.
I enjoyed it a lot and found myself not doing other things to read more which is a compliment to any book.

I’ve been looking for a new author of this sort of contemporary thriller, but without much success. Most of what I’ve been coming across just isn’t very well-written, despite a promising plot idea. I’ve finally found a great new author – Chris Morgan Jones.
As you can guess from the title, The Silent Oligarch is about nefarious doings in Russia. There is no need to give away the plot here. What you need to know is that this book is very well-written. The characters are complex enough to be real; none are caricatures of Good or Evil. The situation is complex, but believable. The locales – Moscow, London, Berlin – will be real for you.
Jones is the equal of Graham Greene and John le Carré. Really.

NOTE: The Silent Oligarch show more was previously published as Agent of Deceit in the UK. show less

An utterly absorbing, first-rate story. A mixture of a crime novel and a spy thriller, but instead of state secrets being pursued, this features a contest between two international businesses. The main protagonists from each side are both flawed characters with their own weaknesses, not the usual infallible men. As the story unfolds and the relationship between them grows, they begin to appreciate the similarities of each other. Chris Morgan Jones has written a very impressive debut novel.

The book opens with Richard Lock in Monte Carlo enjoying his wealth with the beautiful and easily bored Oksana. The reader is introduced to his easy and pampered life just before it starts to fall apart. Lock is a lawyer who has created a complex web of fake businesses to shuffle money around for the Russian Minister of Natural Resources, Konstantin Malin. Lock had even married Malin's daughter although they are divorced now and Marina lives in London raising their only child. Lock's world begins to fall apart piece by piece because another wealthy and vindictive operator feels he was cheated in a deal with Malin and hires Benjamin Webster to ruin Malin. Lock's position has always been that he would be the front man and be the face to show more take any blame if the web of money laundering oil companies came under suspicion. Lock has been paid well to maintain the shifting web of shell companies and the risk with it.

But what happens in Russia when you really are under scrutiny by world courts? Lock begins to experience real fear when a good friend dies under very suspicious circumstances and he has goons restricting his every move. Webster instinctively feels that Lock is the linchpin and if they can get him to cooperate with their side and expose Konstantin Malin for the business crook he is the world would be better off. Webster manipulates press and FBI contacts to raise the heat on Lock. Webster becomes personally involved when the decade old murder of his dear journalist friend Inessa may have been at Malin's hand. The line between doing his job and getting a personal payback for Inessa blur at times for Webster. Is Webster too personally involved to be effective?

This book is for the patient reader who enjoys letting the story unfold and the tension slowly rise without car chases or explosions. If you want a glimpse of the shadowy world of wealthy chess players using humans as pieces to be maneuvered in a bigger strategy, this book is your armchair vantage point. The focus is on Lock and Webster and how these two will exit on the other side of this crucible. The viewpoint shifts between the two characters and the reader becomes invested in both men. Lock is reduced to the man he once was before taking the easy big payout and Webster is dealing with the dangerous people who slaughtered Inessa and who haunt his dreams and now threaten his wife and peaceful home life.

I had many distractions as I was reading this book and that didn't help. This book simmers on low while setting the stage. This book should be read when you have blocks of time to devote to its reading. Despite my scattered attention, the book is clearly a fine story. The premise is sound and couldn't be more "ripped from the headlines" as wealthy corporate interests manipulate everything around them with impunity. The plot is solid and realistic. The character development is golden in this book, they are both flawed and make mistakes. The pacing reminds me of Hitchcock's 1946 movie Notorious with layers of danger built up slowly as the story progresses. The climax is as real world as I have read in a book but left one thread unanswered. In real life we rarely get every question neatly answered, and perhaps this leaves the possibility of another Benjamin Webster novel to follow that thread.

Main Characters: Richard Lock, money launderer and Benjamin Webster, Corporate Intelligence Investigator

Setting: Modern day, England & Russia

Obtained Through: Publisher for honest review

Please join me at my mystery book blog:
http://www.mysterysuspence.blogspot.com/ show less

This financial/espionage thriller is about a shady Greek businessman’s attempt to destroy a Russian oligarch, Malin. This is done by employing British investigator Ben Webster who decides to investigate the oligarch’s front man, Dutch lawyer Richard Lock. The story is seen through the eyes of these two characters.

I thought the book was very well written with a style similar to John Le Carre. The book describes how a maze of offshore companies might be used for money laundering. I found this interesting if a little text book like. The author really conveys a mood of menace and gives a good description of the moral dilemmas facing Webster and Lock. However I found the pace too slow and the plot lacked excitement.

Set in exotic and upscale locations - think Monaco, Geneva, Moscow, London, and so forth - The Silent Oligarch is an unusual legal and financial thriller. Richard Lock, an ordinary corporate lawyer becomes the front man for Malin, one of the most powerful and wealthiest Russian oligarchs. This has meant quite a lot of perks until things turn bad fast. When Lock finds himself hunted by lawyers, journalists, and courts in connection with a white collar crime investigation, he knows that he's also up against the enormous wealth, power, and reach of his principal, Malin. The dilemmas, the possible escapes and traps are of the white collar sort and, while not always fastpaced, The Silent Oligarch is a fun, engrossing read.

At first I had to get used to this book. The writing style, the plot. But once I got the hang of it, I liked it a lot.
Interesting, plausible and (for me) the Russian part was very recognizable.
I liked it that much, that I'll be on the look out for more books by this writer.