William Boyd is one of the many authors to write a James Bond novel (Solo) and he did so very much in the classic mode. So it might be no surprise that he has set his new venture into the world of espionage, Gabriel’s Moon, in the 1960s. Much of the enjoyment here comes from the fact that his main character, Gabriel Dax is no James Bond, no matter how much he would like to think he is.
Gabriel’s Moon opens with a tragedy from the protagonist’s early life. A house fire in the 1930s when Gabriel was six that took the life of his mother. Gabriel has always felt partially responsible as the cause of the fire was said to be the candle in his moon-shaped night light. Fast forward to the 1960s and Gabriel is a successful travel writer. On a trip to the newly created Republic of Congo he scores an interview through an old school friend with the new Prime Minister Patrick Lumumba. Soon after, Gabriel who has been running errands for his brother who he suspects is in the Secret Service and is ‘recruited’ by a woman called Faith Green. Faith wants Gabriel to do small jobs for her for sums of money that he cannot refuse. In doing these jobs, Gabriel slowly finds himself sinking deeper and deeper into the murky world of espionage and counter espionage while also having to deal with those who are after the recording of his interview with Lumumba (who talks about his fear of assassination and was killed soon after).
Gabriel is a great main character – not as famous as he would like to be; intelligent, but not as smart as he thinks he is; self aware but not in a way that stops him doing things that he knows he shouldn’t. And he is easily manipulated by Faith, more than he often realises. But Gabriel is also, it seems, a natural spy, often making the right move to save himself from danger without having to be taught.
In Solo, Boyd tried to dig behind the superspy image of James Bond to as he puts it “reveal the man behind the icon”. With Gabriel’s Moon he goes one better, giving readers a reasonably ordinary, although well-educated protagonist who has to make up spycraft as he goes along. Boyd still has the international travel (Gabriel is a travel writer after all), the womanising and the drinking, but even all of this feels more realistic. And Gabriel is also seeing a therapist to work through his childhood trauma, although this endeavour is not as straightforward as it seems either.
While Boyd wraps everything up, when Gabriel’s Moon ends it feels like Gabriel is only at the start of a journey. It’ll be interesting to see where Boyd takes him next.
Robert Goodman
For more of Robert’s reviews, visit his blog Pile By the Bed
Other reviews you might enjoy:
- Sea of Tranquility (Emily St John Mandel) – book review
- The Devil’s Bargain (Stella Rimington) – book review
- Damascus Station (David McCloskey) – book review
Robert Goodman is a book reviewer, former Ned Kelly Awards judge and institutionalised public servant based in Sydney. This and over 450 more book reviews can be found on his website Pile By the Bed.
