I’m in Austria with spies being hunted by the Nazi regime

I am a great fan of spy stories. My interest in this genre was kindled by reading Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John Le Carre as a teenager – although I have read many spy novels since I have yet to find a book that matches it. I picked this book up in a charity shop as I have seen a number of books around written by the author and I thought that I might enjoy it. It is one of a series of four books which I understand feature the same British Intelligence leaders but I didn’t feel at any point that I was losing out by not having read the previous volumes.

Vienna Spies by Alex Gerlis is a spy story set during WW2 in Austria, specifically in its capital, Vienna. The story takes place towards the end of the war and British Intelligence has inserted two spies into the city who are acting as a married couple. Their task is to find a pre-war political leader who is in hiding in the city and attempt to retrieve him to head up a post-war government. As it happens, the Russians are doing the same and are using a well-known spy who needs to find this man and remove him from the situation so that he won’t prevent Soviet control of the country after the conflict is over.

The story is set in an occupied country where most of the population has collaborated with the Germans and many have done so enthusiastically. The German regime is breaking down and they are trying to eliminate anything or anybody who might provide evidence against them in the future. The Soviet troops are approaching in one direction and the Americans in the other with both racing to take possession of the city. Everyone is in danger and no one can be trusted.

The author knows his history and presents us with an excellent image of this divided, disintegrating city and its people. The book concentrates on the seedier side of Vienna and especially on the barges and river traffic. You get a feel for the country at this time and for the specific problems afflicting Vienna because of its history and location – technically, at this time Austria doesn’t exist and the country is now a region of the German state. The plot is realistic and although it is not true history you can see that these things could and possibly did happen.

Where the book doesn’t meet expectations is in the characterisations and the style in which the book is written. Something is wrong with the pacing and there seems to be no sense of moving towards a conclusion. I got no feel for the characters at all, even when they were supposed to be feeling emotion. The omniscient narrator relayed lots of information about what was going on and we didn’t get it from what the characters did. The whole book was rather flat and without texture or depth which was a pity because the background and the plot were well done.

I’m not keeping this book and probably won’t read others by this author, although it is possible that I may have another in the to-be-read piles. It wasn’t bad but there are a lot better available (John Le Carre, Jane Thynne, Philip Kerr, Len Deighton, Graham Greene and even Ian Fleming). My copy is a bit battered so it will go on the Sainsbury’s book table.

I can’t think that I have read many books set in Austria (The Third Man by Graham Green is one that comes to mind which was a book that I loved – see my review here). Have any of the readers of my blog any suggestions for other books set in Austria or maybe for spy novels by other authors ?