Angelmaker

5.00 out of 5 (1 ratings)

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Format:: Hardback
Pages:: 576
Publisher:: Cornerstone
Publication Date:: 02 February 2012
Category:: Modern & Contemporary
ISBN:: 9780434020942

Description

From the acclaimed author of "The Gone-Away World" - here comes a new riveting action spy thriller, blistering gangster noir, and howling absurdist comedy: a propulsively entertaining tale about a mobster's son and a retired secret agent who are forced to team up to save the world. All Joe Spork wants is a quiet life. He repairs clockwork and lives above his shop in a wet, unknown bit of London. The bills don't always get paid and he's single and has no prospects of improving his lot, but at least he's not trying to compete with the reputation of Mathew "Tommy Gun" Spork, his infamous criminal dad. Edie Banister lives quietly and wishes she didn't. She's nearly ninety and remembers when she wasn't. She's a former superspy and now she's...well...old. Worse yet, the things she fought to save don't seem to exist anymore, and she's beginning to wonder if they ever did. When Joe fixes one particularly unusual device, his life is suddenly upended. The client? Unknown. And the device? It's a 1950s doomsday machine. And having triggered it, Joe now faces the wrath of both the government and a diabolical South Asian dictator, Edie's old arch-nemesis. With Joe's once-quiet world now populated with mad monks, psychopathic serial killers, scientific geniuses and threats to the future of conscious life in the universe, he realises that the only way to survive is to muster the courage to fight, help Edie complete a mission she gave up years ago, and pick up his father's old gun...

Reader Reviews

Showing 1-1 out of 1 reviews.

Joshua Joseph Spork is a name that will be with me for a long time, if not the rest of my life (I say, hoping that the rest of my life will be longer than a long time). He is an antique dealer, expert repairer of things clockwork, son of a submachine toting crook, and the main character in Nick Harkaway’s excellent spy adventure novel, “Angelmaker”.When I reviewed Nick’s previous novel, “The Gone-Away World”, I described it as “a fast paced tale that covers a lot of ground and doesn’t let you rest for a minute”. Well, he’s done it again. The same pace, subtle, and not so subtle, humour, intricate plot, and breadth of scope are all present. “The Gone-Away World” convinced me I should read anything Nick writes. “Angelmaker” reinforced this decision.Without being specific I can tell you that Joe Spork, like any central character in a spy novel, finds himself in a troublesome situation with different elements of his life falling asunder. For someone who just wants a quiet life this is rather troubling. In addition, he is surrounded by characters whom he is not sure are on his side or the other; for that matter, he doesn’t know what or who the other side is.Don’t be fooled by Edie Banister’s outward appearance. She may be a little old lady in her eighties, but in her heart she is something very different.Nick’s characters are impeccably drawn, his language artful, and his plot intriguing. This was one of those books that I was sorry to finish and that, I have to admit, had me with an emotional lump in my throat at the end.“Angelmaker” is much more than a spy novel. It is a tale of struggle and loyalty; a story of family and righteousness; and a narrative of how a legacy of former years can visit havoc on the present day world. It also poses the questions, “Who is really in control?” and “What are they really trying to do?”For those of you interested in that sort of thing, there are several modes of transport in the book, including a boat, a submarine, a train, a taxi, and of course, an elephant.

5.00 out of 5

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