Danish director Susanne Bier’s Oscar® winner (Best Foreign Language), less breakout than consolidation/recognition of her run of five preceding well-received titles in under a decade. (Bier likely best known here for the multi-part tv adaptation of John Le Carré’s THE NIGHT MANAGER/’17: https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-night-manager-2016.html.) Superbly structured and economically handled, this many-sided two-family drama begins away from home, in Africa where a Doctors-Without-Borders type is patiently speeding his way thru scores of cases in a camp near some unspecified war zone. Admirable work, but it’s taken a toll back home in Denmark where he’s separating from his wife (an affair he’s written off but she hasn’t), but not their two boys, the eldest, about 12, an obviously great kid with a crooked smile, being horribly bullied (as a rat-faced Swede) in middle school. At the same time, a second family (disengaged father/resentful son) are dealing poorly with the death of the mother. And when this 12-yr-old son starts at the same school, he quickly bonds, even protects, the bullied kid. Only his ‘protection’ takes a violent course, bringing out untreated fissures in everyone’s personality that threaten all relationships. It’s a blister that won’t break without dangerous consequences. Even the level-headed doctor finds his limit for tolerance crossed back in Africa. Insightful, thought-provoking & heartbreaking (though Bier pulls back from the abyss); sentiment earned rather than taken. (NOTE: Family Friendly label on this one, but no younger than our 12-yr-old protagonists.)
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If you enjoy reading fact based espionage thrillers, of which there are only a handful of decent ones, do try reading Bill Fairclough’s Beyond Enkription. It is an enthralling unadulterated fact based autobiographical spy thriller and a super read as long as you don’t expect John le Carré’s delicate diction, sophisticated syntax and placid plots.
What is interesting is that this book is so different to any other espionage thrillers fact or fiction that I have ever read. It is extraordinarily memorable and unsurprisingly apparently mandatory reading in some countries’ intelligence agencies’ induction programs. Why?
Maybe because the book has been heralded by those who should know as “being up there with My Silent War by Kim Philby and No Other Choice by George Blake”; maybe because Bill Fairclough (the author) deviously dissects unusual topics, for example, by using real situations relating to how much agents are kept in the dark by their spy-masters and (surprisingly) vice versa; and/or maybe because he has survived literally dozens of death defying experiences including 20 plus attempted murders.
The action in Beyond Enkription is set in 1974 about a real maverick British accountant who worked in Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC) in London, Nassau, Miami and Port au Prince. Initially in 1974 he unwittingly worked for MI5 and MI6 based in London infiltrating an organised crime gang. Later he worked knowingly for the CIA in the Americas. In subsequent books yet to be published (when employed by Citicorp, Barclays, Reuters and others) he continued to work for several intelligence agencies. Fairclough has been justifiably likened to a posh version of Harry Palmer aka Michael Caine in the films based on Len Deighton’s spy novels.
Beyond Enkription is a must read for espionage cognoscenti. Whatever you do, you must read some of the latest news articles (since August 2021) in TheBurlingtonFiles website before taking the plunge and getting stuck into Beyond Enkription. You’ll soon be immersed in a whole new world which you won’t want to exit. Intriguingly, the articles were released seven or more years after the book was published. TheBurlingtonFiles website itself is well worth a visit and don’t miss the articles about FaireSansDire. The website is a bit like a virtual espionage museum and refreshingly advert free.
Returning to the intense and electrifying thriller Beyond Enkription, it has had mainly five star reviews so don’t be put off by Chapter 1 if you are squeamish. You can always skip through the squeamish bits and just get the gist of what is going on in the first chapter. Mind you, infiltrating international state sponsored people and body part smuggling mobs isn’t a job for the squeamish! Thereafter don’t skip any of the text or you’ll lose the plots. The book is ever increasingly cerebral albeit pacy and action packed. Indeed, the twists and turns in the interwoven plots kept me guessing beyond the epilogue even on my second reading.
The characters were wholesome, well-developed and beguiling to the extent that you’ll probably end up loving those you hated ab initio, particularly Sara Burlington. The attention to detail added extra layers of authenticity to the narrative and above all else you can’t escape the realism. Unlike reading most spy thrillers, you will soon realise it actually happened but don’t trust a soul.
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