WATCHMAN
Ian Rankin
Little, Brown and Company
Thriller
ISBN: 9780316009133

In the introduction to WATCHMAN, being published for the first time in the United States, Ian Rankin tells readers that the book is a spy novel and that he used his "page-a-day" diary from 1986-1988 as source material. This, he maintains, was because it allowed him "to place [the narrative] in historical context. He says that in 1988 he was ready to write his second novel, either "Rebus 2 or The Watcher." As he thought this through, he was drawn to the spies, and the result is WATCHMAN.

Rankin goes on to say that both his new hero, John Rebus (KNOTS AND CROSSES), and Miles Flint of MI5 are "worldly wise," yet "The difference between the two men is that while Rebus is a man of action…Miles…is a professional voyeur." And as this book unfolds, Miles is transformed from being only an invisible watcher into "real ruthless activity."

As in most spy novels, nobody really can trust anyone else. Each man (back in 1988, and still today, few women cavort in this genre) is out for himself and will do almost anything to get closer to a promotion. The tangled webs woven by both the good and bad guys somehow tend to weave themselves together, creating tension, suspense and fast-paced plots. Such is the case with WATCHMAN. As in the novels of John le Carre and Graham Greene, things at the agency are not what they seem, and the word "mole" finds a new meaning. Rankin's anti-hero, Miles Flint, is most similar to the Smiley of the Circus novels, albeit not quite as cerebral or intuitive.

Film buffs may remember the spy-spoof movies of the 1960s whose main character was also named Flint: In Like Flint and Our Man Flint. Rankin says, "I'm guessing that Miles Flint took his surname from [that] character." Another "Flintism" is his interesting if strange hobby --- beetles! He attaches the personality traits of his colleagues to the variety of creepy crawlies he keeps. Despite his years as a spy, he has been able to maintain a certain level of "innocence" --- until now.

Like Smiley, Miles is in a dissolving marriage and has become expendable to his masters. While knowing "something stinks in the state of" MI5, he has trouble believing that his colleagues are as corrupt or more so than their enemies. When he finds himself in league with a killer who may be after him, he finds inner strengths to fight his foe. As WATCHMAN unfolds, Miles at first is seen as neurotic and perhaps a bit paranoid; he drops a piece of silverware, to get a peek under the table and see if a bug is planted there, and naively believes that no one is on to him. Readers may be reminded of the sign that hangs in Agent Mulder's X-Files office: "TRUST NO ONE."

People at work are suddenly retiring, being sent on strange dead-end missions or just displaying bizarre behaviors as Flint looks on. How is it possible for "his last suspect to know more about Miles's assignment than Miles did?" His loss of innocence and his own investigation may be the only way for him to survive his own execution. Even his wife is appalled when she realizes that her husband is now an outcast and, in some sense, a rogue agent bent on dismantling the agency.

Another important "character" in this book is terrorism in the form of IRA bombs exploding in London. People are getting killed, and ironically the perpetrator might be an Arab, code-named "Latchkey." On the night when the watchmen set out to capture him, everything goes wrong and an Israeli diplomat is murdered. Miles is blamed for the "cock-up," and his time in the firm may be coming to a dismal and deadly close. When he is sent on a mission to Belfast to arrest two supposed terrorists, he soon realizes that he has been duped into taking on a suicide mission and has only two choices.

With the re-release of WATCHMAN, Rankin said in an interview: "Re-reading the book recently, I was struck by how fast it moves, cutting quickly from one scene to another, its elliptical, breathless style marking it as a young man's work, a story by someone in thrall to the possibilities of narrative. Strange, too, that it should be such a period piece: almost no one owns a mobile phone, and Miles doesn't even own a computer. I was pleased to see so many in-jokes along the way."

Twenty years after bursting onto the literary scene as a composer of poetry and writer of short stories, one of which became the first Rebus novel, Ian Rankin's star hangs high and shines brightly. Clearly he is a master of language, plot, characters, narrative and creating suspense. His work is no longer pigeonholed as genre fiction; rather it has risen to the level of literary fiction.

    --- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum

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