Lysander Rief is a young actor with a bright
future in the profession. Of good stock (his late father was a thespian of note
and his ex-actress mother is now remarried to a peer of the realm and installed
in a country estate) he is engaged to his beautiful co-star Blanche. The one
fly in the ointment is a sexual impediment that he needs to address.
And
in 1913 the best place to get that done is Vienna where Freud’s influence draws
psychologists of note to the city.
His first appointment is fateful. Before he
even leaves the waiting room he has encountered two people who will change his
life forever. Alwyn Munro is from the British Embassy, a military type of
unknown designation and rank; Hettie Bull is a sculptor, unstable, mercurial
and attractive. When his involvement with Hettie goes awry it is to Munro that
he turns for help – but that assistance puts him in debt to HMG, and to that unspecified
branch to which Munro belongs.
Back in the UK, as war breaks out, Rief enlists
but is soon plucked from the ranks by Munro for ‘special operations’ where his ingenuity
and talent for disguise will be better utilised. The mission and its aftermath
provide action and tension, and Rief soon concludes he can trust no-one as his
new profession repeatedly bumps up against his increasingly complicated private
life.
Boyd tells a great story, balancing an easy
narrative style with period detail of pre-war Vienna and wartime London. There
are many threads to the tale, and not all tie up neatly – just enough to
satisfy without being too contrived.
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