Book of the week

The Fox by Frederick Forsyth (Penguin Random House) $37

Imagine a world in which the British prime minister is a woman (but sentient and named Marjory Graham), in which the president of the US is a narcissist with coiffed hair, in which the leader of Russia is a self-aggrandising bully, in which Sergei Skripal and his daughter had almost been assassinated in Salisbury by Russian agents using the nerve agent Novichok. This is the world portrayed by Frederick Forsyth in a most welcome comeback to his brand of fiction that comes very close to fact.

Luke Jennings is 17 and a fair way along the autistic spectrum. He lives in a world circumscribed by his room in the attic of the family house; a room in which every detail has to be in its ordained place and of which the centrepiece is his computer. His father cannot understand him, his younger brother tolerates him and his mother ensures that his life runs as smoothly as it can.

Without knowing it, Luke has become a potential secret weapon, a weapon that was discovered because he had managed to hack into one of the most secret and protected computers in the world, at the American National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Maryland. He had done it for no other reason than that he was able to and it was something interesting to do

Sir Adrian Weston, retired spymaster and secret advisor to the prime minister, takes over the future of Luke Jennings with the assistance of anyone he cares to call on from any of the clandestine special services that doubtless exist in the UK. Because of the hacking that Luke (sequestered with his family somewhere in the English countryside) takes little persuading to do, forces in Russia, Iran, and North Korea would very much like to pay him a visit, with, as the American euphemism goes, extreme prejudice.

So the latest Forsyth adventure unfolds, its fast pace interleaved with explanations and accounts that are described with such attention to detail that there is little doubt as to their authenticity. Oblivious, Luke hacks into the computer controls of Russian gas pipelines, North Korean missile controls and Iranian nuclear bases, probing ever more deeply, seemingly with great relish in simply solving the puzzles that noone else in the world can.

Reading The Fox is like being back absorbed by The Day of the Jackal. Forsyth’s knowledge and expertise and the painstaking research that underwrites the book pays homage to the investigative journalist that he once was. At times, the descriptions and explanations of spycraft, political machinations and the details of weaponry can become a little didactic. This, though, is a small price to pay for a very clever, highly entertaining read.

The Fox describes events that might be happening at any time, even now, and by the final page, one has had privileged insights into a dangerous world that, perhaps, is only just being held together.

Forsyth’s knowledge and expertise and the painstaking research that underwrites the book pays homage to the investigative journalist that he once was.