The Stranger

The Stranger by Simon Conway is my best book of the year. 

Jude Lyon is a wonderfully well constructed MI6 character, flawed by his experience witnessing a captured 'bomb maker' being sent off to Syria for interrogation and inevitable torture by his superiors.

Jude now knows that the 'bomb maker' was set up, innocent and is also unexpectedly still alive. 

Jude's given the task of finding the 'bomb maker' and getting to the truth, knowing he is being undermined by his superiors, who know much more than he does. 

But, who is the Stranger and why was the bomb maker 'set up'?

The pace is fast. The story well spun. The horrors and carnage of what may be unleashed by the unknown Stranger in a terrifying brutal and well planned terrorist attack against the country is agonizingly revealed.

For those who love thrillers and intrigue The Stranger is a must buy book,  it's well written and researched. I found it very absorbing, It also left me wanting more of this character. Hopefully, another book?

My thanks to NetGalley for providing me the opportunity to read and review The Stranger and for introducing me to Simon Conway and Jude Lyon. - Eddy Weatherill

Fantastic. This is a superbly contrived story reflecting contemporary issues in the war against terrorism. Jude Lyon knows that something was not quite right when his superiors in MI6 ten years earlier wrongly identified the man who had supposedly arranged the murder of British soldiers in the Basra ambush.  Their coverup unravels as Jude discovers that the terrorist known as the Stranger is not the assumed Nasruddin al-Raqqah but someone much closer to home. The book is outstandingly well researched and although the plot is complex, it is easy to follow as the story is so well written. A particularly affecting line is the information about the recruitment of teenagers, an issue of current significance. Then there is, of course, a dramatic climax. In reading each  chapter , don’t ignore the titles as they are worth taking in on their own. This is a brilliant read not least for its for its coverage of contemporary issues. I recommend it without reservation.

Back in the day MI6’s agent Jude Lyon was part of the operation which captured a terrorist bomb-maker and he witnessed the rendition flight to friendly Syria where he would be ‘questioned’.

Then, years later,  when a story is leaked suggesting that the former foreign secretary authorised the rendition Jude is called back to close it all down.  Not so easy though, because whispers have it that he wasn’t a terrorist but there is someone out there who poses a threat, not only to the citizens of the UK but to people in high places.  So Jude is surrounded by those in authority over him but who is working for who; who knows what is happening; what the aims are?

So, who is the stranger; what is the stranger?  It is up to Jude to discover.

Great!  A bit confusing at the beginning but soon it becomes clearer and what you get is a very satisfying spy story, complete with all the latent anger against ‘those in high place’.

Thank you to the author, publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.

Simon Conway The Stranger

Full confession: I’d heard of Simon Conway but this is the first novel of his that I have read. Frankly, after this, firstly my ignorance shames me and, secondly, this should propel Conway into the very first rank of thriller writer’s working today. 

The Stranger centres on Jude Lyon, an SIS officer, dispatched by his duplicitous Head of Service, Queen Bee, to track down a legendary terrorist renditioned to Syria, back when we didn’t do that sort of thing. Honest. But the terrorist is not all that he seems. And neither is anyone else.

As well as Lyon, a lead character which a love life complicated enough to make George Smiley blush, and Queen Bee, the smoke and mirrors head of the security services, the novel is populated with a fascinating cacophony of characters, including a squirming semi-alcoholic former Foreign Secretary, a Scottish journalist with a professional and personal interest in Lyon and a Russian diplomat and his wife who may or may not be luring Jude onto the rocks of disaster. 

Conway’s plot are onion layered: peeling back one skin at a time. He manages that neat trick so often missing in this type of novel which means that plot reveals seem inevitable rather than either being outlandish or tediously predictable. His storytelling remind me of the best of Charles Cumming or Jeremy Duns – engaging, jigsaw tight, satisfying at the end but with potential for expansion in a future work. 

He writes well too. “Jude’s immigrant provenance is equally exotic and fragmentary, shot through with competing veins of conformity and criminality, from a cigar-chomping bank robber for a grandfather to a general given to eccentricity and dark moods for a father,” is the sort of descriptive passage that Martin Amis at his most interesting would have been proud of. And, while it is true, Conway’s novel doesn’t – of necessity – have the same laugh out loud quality of some of Mick Herron’s novels, “Jonno Butcher, one of Cathy’s seemingly inexhaustible supply of meat-faced nephews,” is a description of which even the Slough House author would be proud.

I will be surprised if it emerges that Conway is not a fan of Le Carré. In fact, I’m not sure if it’s an affectionate nod to Le Carré, or merely to do with the abundance of such names in the region, but all the characters from the Caucuses we encounter in the book have names from his novels, especially ‘Our Game’.

Perhaps the most impressive area is that of the terrorists. He makes them well-rounded, whole characters who you don’t mind spending time with. Terrifying, yes, but nuanced and engaging too.

The ending of The Stranger may be slightly crash, bang, wallop for some people’s tastes but even this is done with enjoyable joie de vivre and edge of the seat inducing tension as well as some final plot twists which make me hope that this is not a standalone novel but the first in a series.

Overall, a triumph of a novel which makes me hope that I will have the opportunity to encounter Jude Lyon and his world again. Just need to go back and read Simon Conway’s back catalogue now. Whole heartedly recommended.

Things change quickly in the world of espionage and clandestine operations. Jude Lyon of MI6 remembers the captured terrorist bomb-maker. He watched him being flown off to Syria, back when Syria was 'friendly'. No-one expected him to survive interrogation there. Yet the man is alive and someone has broken him out of jail. Bad news for the former foreign secretary who authorised his rendition. And Jude's boss Queen Bee who knew he wasn't a terrorist at all, but an innocent bystander. Now she calls Jude back from a dangerously enjoyable mission involving a Russian diplomat's wife. He has a new job: close down this embarrassment. Fast.
This is the first book I’ve read by the author & it certainly won’t be the last. Well written, fast paced, strong characters & edge of the seat action that kept me turning the pages. I was drawn in from the start & was engrossed until the end. A first class thriller, will Jude find The Stranger? Well you'll just have to read it to find out
My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read

A book that is impossible to put down.  

It is extremely well-written, with believable characters, and a totally realistic background in terms of places, events.

Highly recommended.

I had heard so much about this book that I was very pleased to be given the opportunity to review The Stranger from NetGalley. Needless to say it didn’t disappoint and I finished it in 24 hours. The plot revolves around `Jude, who works for MI6 is trying to complete a dangerous mission involving the Russians when he is called back to base. The Engineer is a dangerous terrorist who is credited with the death of 25 so.doers in a plot that was so expertly and callously devised that Jude has never forgotten the moment The Engineer was arrested and with his pregnant wife sent to Syria for interrogation. Moving to the present day, the Engineer is still alive and has been broken out of jail. Jude always has a bad feeling about what happened, and his sixth sense isn’t often wrong. Forces beyond his control start a sequence of events that will cause the higher echelons of MI6 and parliament to unravel. The level of detail in the character development and plot line make this a stand out read for 2020. I was drawn into the horrifyingly realistic storyline as Jude will seek to stop a devastating terrorist act by travelling across Europe and back onto on home turf. The Stranger definitely lived up to the hype and I look forward to reading the back collection of Simon Conway’s books