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Miles Flint works as a spy for M15. He is in the middle of his career and things are not going smoothly. He bungles an apparently easy assignment and a member of the Foreign Office is killed. There are numerous conspiracies within M15 and Miles is not sure who the good guys are in the office. It is vital that he discovers this, as the bad guys will stop at nothing to remove him from his job. There have been several unexplained reassignments that Miles finds suspicious but he is unable to learn the truth behind them. Miles also discovers that there is a leak in the department. The people he is supposed to be watching seem to have a better grasp of his assignment that he does. Being a firm believer in national security and his own safety, he begins his own investigation into the official’s murder, the office conspiracies and the probable leak. As a parallel story he also works to rebuild his relationships with his wife and son. While seemingly unconnected, this subplot has a large impact on the main storyline. Miles quickly discovers that his investigation will lead him back to someone close to him. He must take an active role to protect himself if he wants to survive the situation. WATCHMAN is a typical spy novel in the sense that the protagonist is somewhat paranoid about his family, his job and the people around him. It relies on conspiracies, politics and action to get the story across to the reader. While Miles Flint is not necessarily a typical spy – he is a ‘watcher’ so he is passive – he ultimately steps into this role by the end of the book. As Ian Rankin explains in the book’s introduction, this story was originally written early in his career and he had rewritten it numerous times before publication. I find this easy to believe, as the story is not as strong as his Inspector Rebus books. WATCHMAN lacks the character development and depth that makes the Rebus series interesting and the characters appealing (or aggravating) and engaging. These faults make it all too obvious that the plot dates back to Rankin’s early career. While it is true that the first two books in the Rebus series also had these problems, Rankin’s writing skills improved with each new book. The WATCHMAN does not show these signs of improvement, which makes this book difficult to like or want to read. Normally rewriting would correct these problems but that is not true in this case. While I was disappointed with this book, true diehard fans of Rankin may be willing to overlook the faults I have named above. Also a reader interested in following the development of an author’s writing ability will appreciate the chance to glimpse at this early Rankin work. Fans of the spy genre, who are not fans of police procedurals, will enjoy WATCHMAN, as the book is a solid spy novel rather than a detective novel.
Reviewed by Sarah Dudley, November 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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