A Spy by Nature

Charles Cummings' first novel is an easy-to-read spy thriller set in the dog days of the Major government in the mid-90s. Alec Milius is a twenty-something ex-public schoolboy in a dead end job when he's offered the chance to apply to work for MI6 (or the Secret Intelligence Service as it is properly known). Loosely based on Cummings own experiences we are taken through the exam and interview process as Milius vies with half a dozen other candidates for the chance to become a spy. But the flaw in Milius' character is that he doesn't know when to stop lying, or at least embroidering the truth. A quality a spy needs, you might say, but with Milius it scuppers his chances and he finds himself out of work and at a loose end.
It is then that show more fate, in the shape of ex-spy and family friend Michael Hawkes, hand Milius a chance to indulge in a little industrial espionage with the dangling carrot of a job at MI5 at the end. So Alec starts work at a small oil company called Abnex, with orders to befriend two Americans who work for a rival company. They are also CIA agents. Welcome to the murky world of spy vs spy.
Cummings' prose is fluid and well written. The problem for me is that his protagonist isn't the most likeable of people. Milius is self-obsessed and incapable of sticking to the job at hand. The second two thirds of the book, where he's feeding false info to the Americans is rather aimless and meanders a bit too much. By the end he's put almost everyone he cares about in danger and this reader's reaction was "Well you shouldn't have been such a twat, should you?"
This modern spy thriller isn't in the same league as the best of LeCarre or Deighton, lacking the former's world weary density and the latter' down-to-earth depiction of the mundanity of espionage.
So, an easy read and it's probably worth exploring Cummings' later works. But the heir to Deighton, on this evidence, he's not. show less

I thought maybe I wasn't in the mood for a spy novel because I didn't care very much for this book. I certainly wouldn't agree with the review from The Observer that was quoted on the back cover "The best of the new generation...taking over where Le Carre and Deighton left off." I've read lots of Le Carre and I was never bored as I was with this book. Or maybe, I thought, now that there is no Cold War the stakes for espionage don't lend themselves to as gripping a story. But then I thought of Le Carre's books written since the fall of the Berlin Wall, like The Tailor of Panama and The Constant Gardener, and I decided that couldn't be the reason. Finally I looked at some of the other online reviews and decided that this book just was not show more well written.

Alec Milius is a twenty something graduate of the London School of Economics employed selling advertising to eastern European businesses in a directory which is mostly bogus. Then a family friend arranges for him to be tested for MI6 but Alec cannot resist lying about his relationship with his ex-girlfriend and he gets caught out. So he is not accepted for the British spy agency but his father's friend comes through with a job working for an oil company. The job has a hidden agenda which is to befriend an American couple who work for a rival oil firm. Alec is supposed to pretend to agree to provide them with information from his company and then he will give them false information. Even though Alec has not seen his ex-girlfriend in over a year he lies to the Americans and tells them he sees her occasionally. This comes to have tragic consequences.

Some of the devices used in the book don't really make sense to me. For instance, why did Alec have to have his friend Saul at the party where he was introduced to the Americans? And why did he have to go in on a Saturday to copy the papers he was leaving in his first drop? And why did the last drop have to be at a lawyer's office at midnight? I know they had to get the office mate, Harry Cohen, to be suspicious of Alec but is it likely Harry would go off for 3 weeks after confronting Alec? It just didn't add up and the story was not "heart-racingly tense" as promised on the back cover. show less

A riveting first novel that follows the career of Alec Milius as he applies to join MI6. Cumming captures his nervousness as he competes with others in his interviews and then his disappointment of rejection.
However, an acquaintance offers him a job in the oil business, with the added incentive of working in partnership with MI5 to discredit an American oil company. Cumming expertly draws the flaws and weaknesses in Alec’s character as this plan unfolds, with Alec hoping that success will lead to a permanent role with MI5.
Cumming creates an intriguing tale, with just enough uncertainty, so that you cannot foresee the outcome, but you continue turning the pages in the hope a favourable outcome for Alec.

The is the first novel from Charles Cumming and just super enjoyable. Cummings' ability to take you into the most mundane scenarios and make them highly intriguing or suspenseful are tough to beat.

Alec Milius is recruited by MI5 to sell false research intel to the CIA. He seems to be an excellent candidate for the job, hardworking and a loner. As we dive deeper into the story, Alec's warts eventually show up and ultimately create issues he doesn't know how to deal with. How he handles them will of course shape his immediate future.

Milius is stuck in a dead end job. He had been hoping for better things having graduated from the London School of Economics, but is getting bored in a dead end job. When a family friend offers him the opportunity to work for MI6 he jumps at the chance and starts the arduous selection process. He is not quite up to the standard, so does not make it through, so the same family friend finds him another position with a British oil company who have extensive interests in the Caspian. It is suggested, that whilst he is there, perhaps he can make friends with two people, Fortner Grice and Katharine Simmat, who work at a rival oil firm called Andromeda. The implication is that if he succeeds at this spot of industrial espionage, then he might show more have a second chance at SIS. This cut throat business is where Milius finds himself a pawn in the smoke and mirrored world of spies as the so called friendly powers play for strategic interests in the region, and even lives are considered worthless.

This is the second of Cumming’s books that I have read. It is a gripping thriller, with a plausible plot and several twists. Milius, the main character, has some major character flaws, to add to the plot, and his vanity means that he likes the allure of spying but fails to excel at it. It was quite enjoyable overall, the writing is fast paced and he successfully manages to make you not have any affinity with the main character. However, it wasn’t quite as good as Trinity Six, which was superb. It does make you think about who is your enemy though. show less

I think I'm gonna have to swim against the tide here. Or at least against the tide of (what are quite possibly reviews for the hardback version) reviews on the cover and inside of my paperback.

Far from "Eerily good" or "wonderfully assured, tautly written, cleverly plotted", I found this really struggling to make 'so-so'. For me, as well as The Kinks, it's 'a mixed-up, muddled-up, shook up' mess.

It starts out alright, with the main man Alec Milius being recommended for a job with the Intelligence services. He then finds work with an oil company exploring out somewhere and is involved trying to sweet-talk his American rivals, who also may be more than they seem. Both sides are playing at something they aren't and I think both sides know show more it. It's just that it goes on and on and on and on in the central part of the novel. I kept thinking "enough already, he's taking the bait, he's going to take the bait, let's get to what the cover says are the "gripping" bit(s)." But they never came. What we do get a lot of are unnecessary details and what I presume are the author's opinions on everything from New Zealand bar staff, to FHM, The Times, the Civil Service, cooking ravioli 'pillows' , and a lot more stuff and nonsense really way too mundane to bother with. A few pages of that and a few lines covering the rest would have done. Then on to the cloak and dagger stuff. But no. Problem is, when I'm seemingly through this middle bit and it looks like we might be getting back to, or down to the nub of it, I've forgotten what the original set-up was. Or if there was one. I can't remember now just exactly who he's supposedly working for and why. Or if there ever was a why. Or who.

Then the final part, where he is really finding out how it is to be a spy, well it read well at the time. However, on reflection and in the cold light of day, it is all a bit of a damp squib. Not really worth wading through all that went before to get to. I thought of one particular plot twist that could have been worked in at the end that really would have upset the whole apple cart and sent me scurrying back to re-read the previous hours of wining and dining. It would have fitted with a lot of the personal trauma Alec Milius is going through right from when we first meet him. But it wasn't to be…though, maybe Charles Cumming is being really fiendish here and my idea (which could be his, of course) will come out in later books? There seems to be at least two more with Alec Milius as hero, maybe more, so maybe it's for me to read more and find out? Milius will need to sharpen his act up a hell of a lot though.

After reading and thoroughly enjoying 'The Trinity Six', I really expected a lot more from 'A Spy By Nature'. But I got a lot less. Less plot, less suspense and tension and less of a story. The only more I got, was more fill, padding and 'flannel' - as an old boss of mine used to say. I think this is essentially a short story padded out to 500-odd pages. A back of an envelope plot stretched to breaking point. And beyond. And then some. show less

I almost never re-read a book, but as I have acquired the rest of the series, I thought I needed to go back to the start. I enjoyed this 9 years ago and I enjoyed it again. I will need to rad "The Spanish Game" soon, because I cannot imagine how our hero (?) Alec Milius can begin to rehabilitate himself after this one. Like any good spy book, there are echoes of Le Carre, but that is no bad thing. Taut plotting and crisp dialogue make this an excellent read.